POPULAR 
HISTORYqf  UTAH 


ORSON   F.WHITNEY 


Popular  History  of  Utah 


BY  ORSON  F.  WHITNEY 


Complete  in  One  Volume 
ILLUSTRATED 


SALT  LAKE  CITY,  UTAH 

THE  DESERET  NEWS 

1916 


' 


Copyright,    1916 
By  The  Deseret  News 


Preface 

It  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  prepare  for  publication  three  his- 
tories of  Utah.  The  earliest  and  largest,  consisting  of  four 
volumes,  published  in  elegant  and  expensive  style,  had  of 
necessity  but  a  limited  circulation.  Nevertheless  it  may  be 
found  in  many  homes  throughout  the  State,  and  upon  the 
shelves  of  leading  libraries  in  various  parts  of  the  land. 

The  second  history  was  written  at  the  request  of  local 
educators,  for  use  in  the  grammar  grades  of  the  public  schools. 
Prepared  in  haste  to  meet  an  urgent  demand,  "The  Making  of 
a  State"  did  not  aim  to  give  a  complete  p'resentation  of  the  sub- 
ject, though  all  salient  points,  social,  political  and  industrial, 
were  touched  upon  in  its  pages.  Controversial  matters  were 
purposely  omitted,  for  the  sake  of  good  feeling  between  "Mor- 
mon" and  "Gentile"  children  attending  those  schools. 

The  work  now  issued  represents  the  realization  of  a  desire 
to  produce  a  history  of  Utah  complete  in  a  single  volume,  one 
that  could  be  sold  at  such  a  figure  as  to  place  it  within  the 
reach  of  all.  Moreover,  it  was  my  wish  to  make  clearer  certain 
points  imperfectly  presented  in  my  first  production.  The  period 
during  which  it  was  compiled — that  of  the  anti-polygamy  cru- 
sade— was  one  of  strife  and  turmoil ;  books  and  documents  had 
been  confiscated  or  were  scattered ;  and  sources  of  information 
were  not  accessible  nor  so  plentiful  as  they  are  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  Consequently  I  labored  at  a  great  disadvantage. 

The  difficulty  of  writing  contemporaneous  history,  amid 
the  heat  and  stress  of  happenings  involved  in  the  narrative,  is 
one  recognized  by  all  intelligent  minds.  That  I  have  exper- 
ienced this  difficulty,  I  admit.  Never  at  any  time,  however, 
have  I  purposely  misrepresented  anybody  or  anything.  I  write 
from  the  "Mormon"  viewpoint,  but  not  as  an  Anti-"Gentile." 
I  have  none  but  friendly  feelings  toward  all  the  people  of  Utah, 
regardless  of  sect,  party,  color,  or  creed.  This  is  the  story  of 
my  native  State — a  record  of  the  facts  as  I  behold  them ;  and 
"with  malice  toward  none,"  and  "with  charity  for  all,"  I  send 
it  forth  upon  its  mission. 

ORSON  F.  WHITNEY. 
Salt  Lake  City,  October,  1916. 


Contents 

PAGE. 

I.     The  Heart  of  the  Desert  (1540-1847)  , 1 

II.     The  First  Inhabitants  8 

III.  Nineteenth  Century  Pilgrims  ( 1846) 18 

IV.  The  Pioneers  (1847)  27 

V.     The  Shores  of  the  Inland  Sea  ( 1847) 37 

VI.     Early  Events  in  the  Valley  ( 1847-1849) 45 

VII.  The  Provisional  State  of  Deseret  ( 1849-1851 )  ...     53 

VIII.     The  Territory  of  Utah  (1850-1853) 71 

IX.     Growth  of  the  Commonwealth  ( 1852-1854) 87 

X.     An  Indian  Uprising  ( 1853-1854) 97 

XI.  Brigham  Young  Again  Governor  (1854-1857) . .    106 

XII.     The  Coming  of  Johnston's  Army  (1857) 118 

XIII.  The  Mountain  Meadows  Massacre  (1857) 129 

XIV.  The  Echo  Canyon  War  (1857-1858) 142 

XV.     Mediation,  Peace  and  Pardon  (1858) 151 

XVI.     Camp  Floyd  Times  (1858-1861) 161 

XVII.     The  Civil  War  Period  (1861-1865) 178 

XVIII.     Later  in  the  Sixties  ( 1865-1867) 199 

XIX.  The  Railroad  and  What  Came  with  It  ( 1868-1871 )  216 

XX.     Modern  Guelph  and  Ghibelline  (1867-1870) 234 

XXI.     Attempts  at  Reconstruction  (1870-1871) 247 

XXII.  Judge  McKean  and  His  "Mission"  (1870-1872) .   263 

XXIII.  Sundry  Events  in  the  Seventies  (1872-1877) ....   290 

XXIV.  Dead  and  Living  Issues  (1878-1881) 315 

XXV.  The  Anti-Polygamy  Movement  (1878-1882) ....   332 

XXVI.     The  Utah  Commission  (1882-1883) 347 

XXVII.     An  Approaching  Storm  (1882-1885) 366 

XXVIII.     Under  the  Harrow  (1885) 388 

XXIX.     Sensational  Episodes  (1885-1886) 412 

XXX.     The  Dark  Before  the  Dawn  (1886-1887) 435 

XXXI.    Rifts  in  the  Cloud  (1887-1889) 454 

XXXII.     The  End  of  a  Cycle  (1889-1891) 474 

XXXIII.  Preparing  for  Sovereignty  (1890-1895) 491 

XXXIV.  The  Forty-Fifth  State   (1896-1897) 506 

XXXV.     War  and  Politics  ( 1898-1916) 517 

XXXVI.     Resources  and  Development  (1916) 547 


UTAH 


-raJ    gM6^-vM'M:^0^- 

Sa/t  La  A*     .  Hf^??5  -'-^^^H  W- 


, 

i    "'"  i 


'-&"          A  K 

I ,  u          Longitude  West  from  Greenwich. 


WHITNEY'S 

Popular  History  of  Utah. 


i. 

THE  HEART  OF  THE  DESERT. 

1540-1847. 

The  Great  Basin.— West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  that 
mighty  continental  barrier,  divider  of  streams  flowing  toward 
the  Pacific  from  waters  that  seek  the  Atlantic  through  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  there  is  a  broad  stretch  of 
arid  country  called  "The  Great  Basin ;"  a  name  given  to  it  by 
Fremont  the  explorer.  It  was  the  driest  and  most  desolate 
part  of  a  region  once  known  as  "The  Great  American  Desert," 
extending  from  what  is  now  Western  Colorado  to  Southeast- 
ern California,  and  from  British  America  to  Mexico. 

Character  of  the  Country. — The  Great  Basin  is  an  elevated 
intermountain  plain,  spreading  five  or  six  hundred  miles  east 
and  west,  and  eight  or  nine  hundred  miles  north  and  south. 
Its  eastern  rim  is  in  the  Wasatch  Mountains,  twenty  to  thirty 
miles  east  of  Salt  Lake  Valley;  its  western  limit  is  the  Sierra 
Nevada  system.  It  narrows  on  the  north  toward  the  Blue 
Mountains  of  Oregon,  and  converges  on  the  south  into  Lower 
California.  Though  described  as  a  plain  or  plateau,  the  country 
is  far  from  level.  Much  of  it  is  broken  and  irregular,  being 
crossed,  mostly  north  and  south,  by  numerous  smaller  moun- 
tain ranges,  and  containing  a  number  of  sinks  or  lakes,  the 
waters  of  which  have  no  visible  outlet.  It  comprises  about 
210,000  square  miles — the  largest  closed  drainage  area  in 
North  America.  The  altitude  of  much  the  larger  part  of  the 
Basin  is  about  four  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean.* 

*The  Great  Basin,  as  a  descriptive  term,  is  deemed  by  some  a  mis- 
nomer. Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  the  Pacific  States  historian,  thpught 
the  term  "Great  Gridiron"  would  have  better  described  this  mountain- 
walled,  rock-ribbed  wilderness.  It  is  not  a  single  depression,  but  a 
number  of  depressions  considered  as  one  because  it  sends  no  stream 
beyond  its  borders. 

Dean  W.  R.  Harris,  in  his  scholarly  work,  "The  Catholic  Church  in 


2      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

A  Prehistoric  Sea. — It  is  believed,  and  the  belief  is  con- 
firmed by  geological  signs,  such  as  the  remains  of  ancient 
beaches  and  river  deltas,  that  the  whole  of  this  wide,  dry  area 
was  once  the  bed  of  an  inland  sea,  communicating  with  the 
Pacific.  Many  of  the  mountain  tops  were  then  submerged, 
while  others  were  islands,  laved  or  lashed  by  the  billows. 
The  canyons  were  connecting  waterways  between  various 
parts  of  that  prehistoric  sea,  the  main  body  of  which  disap- 
peared before  the  foot  of  the  European  pressed  the  soil  of  the 
New  World.  The  remnants  of  it  are  found  in  several  smaller 
basins,  parts  of  the  Great  Basin,  holding  the  sinks  or  lakes  men- 
tioned. The  most  important  one  is  the  basin  or  valley  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake. 

Concerning  the  ancient  shore  lines  found  in  this  region, 
Dr.  James  E.  Talmage,  the  Utah  geologist,  says :  "The  deltas 
of  the  Logan  River  form  a  series  of  sloping  terraces  extending 
downward  from  the  mountain  face.  Each  delta  indicates  the 
partial  destruction  of  earlier  depositions  above.  In  Salt  Lake 
Valley  the  delta  formed  by  City  Creek  *  *  *  reveals  itself 
as  high  benches  through  which  the  stream  has  kept  for  itself 
a  passage.  Wave-action  appears  to  have  been  unusually 
strong  at  this  place,  and  consequently  the  typical  delta  form  is 
considerably  modified.  The  delta  constructed  by  the  Provo 
River  in  Utah  Valley  covers  over  twenty  thousand  acres,  and 
another  occurs  a  few  miles  to  the  south — the  work  of  the 
Spanish  Fork  stream — with  an  area  of  eight  thousand  acres." 

Lake  Bonneville. — The  great  body  of  water  that  once  ex- 


Utah,"  thus  describes  the  Great  Basin:  "This  colossal  inland  depres- 
sion takes  in  the  western  half  of  Utah,  including  Sanpete,  Sevier,  Sum- 
mit, and  Utah  counties,  and  includes  almost  the  entire  State  of  Mevada. 
In  southeastern  Oregon  the  Basin  absorbs  a  large  territory  and  steals 
a  portion  of  land  from  southeastern  Idaho  and  southwestern  Wyoming. 
It  passes  into  California,  extending  along  its  eastern  border,  and,  leap- 
ing to  the  southern  end  of  the  State,  collects  Imperial  Valley,  San 
Diego  County,  and  portions  of  Lower  California  into  its  tremendous 
maw.  Towards  the  east  it  touches  the  drainage  basin  of  the  Colorado 
River,  and  on  the  west  it  is  bounded  by  the  basins  of  the  San  Joaquin 
the  Sacramento,  and  many  lesser  streams.  The  crest  of  the  huge  Sierra 
Nevada  forms  the  great  divide  for  the  falling  and  flowing  waters,  and 
further  south  towering  mountains  hold  its  drainage  within  this  terri- 
tory. Within  the  Basin  are  pleasant  valleys,  whose  alluviarslopes  and 
floors  were  raised  by  the  detritus  accumulating  for  uncounted  ages 
from  the  surrounding  mountains.  Here,  too,  deserts  of  repellant  aspect 
were  formed,  and  among  them  are  the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  Carson 
desolations  of  sand  and  alkali,  the  Colorado  and  the  burning  Mojave 
of  the  southwest.  The  Sevier,  the  Ralston,  the  Amagosa  and  the 
Escalante  wastes  of  sand  occupy  their  own  places  in  this  marvelous 
formation,  but  are  of  subordinate  importance.  Enclosed  within  the 
Basin  are  the  dreaded  Death  Valley,  the  Salton  Sink  and  Coahuila 
desert,  all  of  them  lying  below  the  face  of  the  Pacific." 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  DESERT.  3 

isted  here,  or  the  bed  that  it  once  occupied,  is  known  as  a  fossil 
sea,  and  bears  the  name  "Lake  Bonneville,"  in  honor  of  an 
early  explorer.  This  name,  given  by  Washington  Irving  to 
the  existing  Lake,  was  subsequently  bestowed  upon  its  dead 
ancestor  by  Grover  Karl  Gilbert,  an  American  scientist,  whose 
report  to  the  United  States  Government  (1877-1878)  is  the 
accepted  standard  work  on  the  geological  history  of  the  Great 
Salt  Lake.  According  to  Gilbert,  Lake  Bonneville  did  not 
cover  the  whole  of  the  Great  Basin,  but  only  the  Utah  part  of 
it.  In  Nevada  there  was  a  similar  lake,  La  Hontan.* 

General  Features  and  Divisions. — Only  the  western  half 
of  Utah  is  in  the  Great  Basin.  The  State  is  divided,  from 
northeast  to  southwest,  by  the  Wasatch  Mountains  and  their 
southern  extension  of  hills  and  plateaus.  East  of  that  natural 
wall  lies  the  region  drained  by  Green  and  Grand  rivers,  afflu- 
ents of  the  Colorado.  To  the  west  spreads  the  Great  Salt 
Lake,  with  its  neighboring  desert;  the  former  wholly  within 
Utah,  the  latter  reaching  into  Nevada.  Eastward  from  and 
forming  a  spur  of  the  Wasatch,  are  the  Uintah  Mountains; 
while  west  of  the  Wasatch  and  parallel  with  that  range,  are 


*Dr.  Talmage,  whose  interesting  work,  "The  Great  Salt  Lake — 
Past  and  Present,"  is  drawn  upon  for  accompanying  data,  names  as 
the  principal  divisions  of  Lake  Bonneville:  (1)  The  main  body,  com- 
prising the  area  of  the  existing  Lake  and  that  of  the  Salt  Lake  Desert; 
(2)  Cache  Bay  to  the  north;  (3)  Sevier  Bay,  and  (4)  Escalante  Bay,  to 
the  south.  The  ancient  channel  of  the  Bonneville  outlet  was  discovered 
on  the  northern  rim  of  Cache  Valley,  at  Red  Rock  Pass,  near  Oxford, 
Idaho.  "The  honor  of  this  discovery,"  says  Talmage,  "is  accorded  to 
Gilbert,  though  Peale  has  Disputed  Gilbert's  rights  of  priority  on  the 
basis  of  Bradley's  suggestion,  made  in  1872.  Bonneville  River  flowed 
through  Marsh  Valley,  being  joined  in  this  part  of  its  course  by  the 
Portneuf.  The  combined  streams  then  followed  Portneuf  Pass  to 
Snake  river,  then  to  the  Columbia.  Above  its  junction  with  the  Port- 
neuf the  Bonneville  River  must  have  equalled  and  possibly  exceeded  in 
size  the  Niagara."  The  same  authority  states  that  Lake  Bonneville, 
when  at  its  highest  level,  had  an  extreme  north  and  south  length  of 
three  hundred  miles,  and  a  greatest  east  and  west  extent  of  one  hun- 
dred eighty  miles,  presenting  an  area  of  19,750  square  miles. 

Major  John  W.  Powell,  the  intrepid  explorer  of  the  Colorado  River, 
in  his  report  to  the  Federal  Government  (1880-1881),  gives  the  follow- 
ing historical  outline  of  Lake  Bonneville:  "First  the  waters  were  low, 
occupying,  as  Great  Salt  Lake  now  does,  only  a  limited  portion  of  the 
bottom  of  the  basin.  Then  they  gradually  rose  and  spread,  forming  an 
inland  sea,  nearly  equal  to  Lake  Huron  in  extent,  with  a  maximum 
depth  of  1,000  feet.  Then  the  waters  fell,  and  the  Lake  not  merely 
dwindled  in  size,  but  absolutely  disappeared,  leaving  a  plain  even 
more  desolate  than  the  Great  Salt  Lake  Desert  of  today.  Then  they 
again  rose,  surpassing  even  their  former  height,  and  eventually  over- 
flowing the  basin  at  its  northern  edge,  sending  a  tributary  stream  to 
the  Columbia  River;  and,  last,  there  was  a  second  recession  and  the 
waters  shrunk  away,  until  now  only  Great  Salt  Lake  and  two  smaller 
lakes  remain." 


4      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


the  Oquirrhs  and  other  lines  of  hills.  Southern  Utah  gener- 
ally is  diversified  with  rocky  ranges,  broken  ridges,  valleys 
and  plateaus. 

Great  Salt  Lake. — The  Great  Salt  Lake  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  natural  objects  in  all  the  West.  Extending  along 
the  base  of  the  Wasatch  Mountains  north  and  south,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  seventy-five  miles,  it  has  a  width  of  nearly  fifty 
miles,  and  in  places  a  depth  of  forty  or  fifty  feet.  Jutting  up 
from  the  surface  is  a  group  or  chain  of  mountain  islands,  partly 
submerged  peaks,  a  continuation  of  neighboring  ranges.  These 

islands  are  nine  in 
number,  and  are 
named  as  follows: 
Antelope,  Stansbury, 
Carrington, Fremont, 
Gunnison,  Dolphin, 
Mud,  Strong's  Knob, 
and  Hat  or  Egg  Isl- 
and. The  Lake,  as 
stated,  has  no  visible 
outlet ;  its  waters, 
which  are  eight 
times  brinier  and 
consequently  far 
more  buoyant  than 
those  of  the  ocean, 
evaporate  to  the 
clouds  or  sink  into 

subterranean  depths.  Owing  to  the  intense  saltness  of  these 
waters,  fish  cannot  live  in  them.  They  were  once  supposed  to 
have  no  life,  but  a  small  brine  shrimp  and  three  kinds  of  insects 
have  been  found  therein. 

Other  Water  Bodies. — Into  the  Great  Salt  Lake  flows  the 
Jordan  River,  a  narrow,  winding  stream,  the  outlet  of  Utah 
Lake,  forty  miles  southward.  The  connection  of  these  two 
lakes,  one  salt  and  the  other  fresh,  by  a  river,  added  to  the 
general  contour  of  the  country,  suggests  a  comparison  between 
Utah  and  the  Land  of  Palestine.  The  Great  Salt  Lake  has  been 
called  "The  Dead  Sea  of  America." 

Utah's  lakes  are  mainly  in  the  north.  Of  the  fresh  water 
bodies,  Utah  Lake  and  Bear  Lake  are  the  most  notable.  Bear 
Lake  is  partly  in  Idaho.  Sevier  Lake  is  a  shallow  brackish 
sink  in  Central  Utah,  and  Little  Salt  Lake,  a  smaller  sheet  far- 
ther south.  The  rivers  that  feed  these  natural  reservoirs  are 
formed  mainly  by  melted  snows  from  the  mountains.  Away 
up  near  the  snow-capped  summits  are  still  smaller  fresh  lakes, 
from  which  flow  clear,  ice-cold  waters,  tumbling  over  high 


THE  BRINE  SHRIMP. 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  DESERT.  -  5 

cliffs,  forming  beautiful  cascades,  falling  into  deep  ravines, 
into  deeper  gorges  called  canyons,  and  finally  flowing  out  upon 
the  thirsty,  sun-parched  plains.  Hot  and  warm  mineral  springs, 
with  healing  waters,  gush  forth  in  places  at  the  foot  of  the 
snow-crowned  ranges. 

Still  a  Desert— Wild  Growths^-Fertile  Spots.— The  term 
"desert,"  formerly  applied  to  this  now  promising  and  produc- 
tive region,  was  not  a  misnomer.  Desert  it  was,  uncultivated, 
uninhabited;  and  desert  it  is,  in  many  parts,  despite  the  won- 
drous changes  that  time  and  toil  have  wrought.  Tillage,  aided 
by  irrigation,  has  done  much  to  redeem  the  waste  and  render 
it  fruitful,  but  much  more  remains  to  be  done  before  the 
ancient  desert  shall  finally  disappear,  and  the  phrase  "Arid 
America"  become  obsolete. 

Trees  are  found  among  the  mountains  and  along  the  water 
courses,  but  these  are  few  and  far  between.  In  the  canyons 
are  groves  of  cottonwood,  quaking  asp,  maple,  cedar,  and  pine, 
and  during  spring  and  early  summer  rich  grasses  and  wild 
flowers  cover  the  sides  of  the  ravines.  But  the  valleys,  when 
'"first  settled,  save  for  light  fringes  of  verdure  timidly  following 
the  trail  of  winding  streams  across  sterile  plains,  had  neither 
groves  nor  grass  to  hide  their  nakedness.  Like  the  rocky  hill- 
sides, they  were  utterly  bare,  or  clothed  only  with  sagebrush, 
sunflowers,  and  other  wild  growths,  withering  in  the  heat  of 
the  sun. 

Along  the  bases  of  the  hills,  where  deposits  from  crumb- 
ling rocks  mingle  with  the  debris  of  the  plains,  the  soil  is 
naturally  productive,  and  when  irrigated  brings  forth  abund- 
antly. In  other  parts  it  is  either  pure  desert,  hopelessly  bar- 
ren, or  so  devoid  of  moisture  and  so  strongly  impregnated  with 
salt  and  alkali,  that  cultivation  is  almost  impossible. 

Climate,  Scenery,  and  Resources. — Utah  is  in  the  North 
Temperate  Zone,  between  parallels  37  and  42  north  latitude, 
and  109  and  114  west  longitude.  The  climate  is  healthful  and 
delightful.  The  mountains  around  the  valleys  ward  off  the 
keen  wintry  winds,  and  the  rarity  of  the  high  atmosphere 
modifies  the  summer  heat.  The  average  annual  rainfall  is 
about  twelve  inches.  In  southwestern  Utah — the  Valley  of 
the  Rio  Virgen — the  climate  is  semi-tropical. 

The  Utah  scenery  will  compare  with  any  in  the  world. 
Here  are  mountains  as  grand  as  the  Alps  of  Switzerland,  and 
sunsets  more  gorgeous  than  those  of  Italy  and  Greece.  In 
the  south  are  marvelous  canyons,  mammoth  stone  bridges, 
and  giant  monoliths,  master-works  of  nature,  worthy  to  be 
classed  with  the  wonders  of  all  time.  The  lakes  and  mountain 
gorges  will  always  be  a  source  of  delight  to  poets,  painters, 
and  lovers  of  the  beautiful. 


6      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  land,  in  spite  of  its  dryness,  is  one  of  rich  and  varied 
resources.  Where  agriculture  has  succeeded,  vast  quantities 
of  cereals  are  raised,  with  all  varieties  of  fruits  and  vegetables 
common  to  the  North  Temperate  Zone.  The  mountains  are 
nature's  treasure  vaults,  containing  inexhaustible  deposits  of 
precious  and  useful  metals.  Gold,  silver,  lead,  copper,  iron, 
coal,  and  a  hundred  other  minerals  are  found.  The  mountains 
and  lakes  could  furnish  salt  and  soda  to  supply  a  continent. 
From  the  quarries  come  marble,  onyx,  granite,  and  all  kinds 


SUNSET  ON  THE  GREAT  SALT  LAKE. 

of  building  stones,  for  the  construction  of  temples,  churches, 
school-houses,  stately  public  edifices  and  handsome  private 
homes,  which  now  adorn  and  beautify  the  land. 

Previous  Conditions. — When  the  Pioneers  entered  this 
region,  however,  it  was  a  wilderness,  a  desolation,  scorched  by 
the  sun  and  trodden  by  the  roving  red  man,  sharing  with  wild 
beasts  and  venomous  reptiles  these  all  but  silent  solitudes.  Of 
the  hunters  and  trappers  of  earlier  times,  there  remained  but 
a  few  straggling  mountaineers,  living  in  lonely  log  forts  with 
their  Indian  wives  and  half-breed  children,  baiting  the  bear, 
trapping  the  beaver,  and  guiding  the  occasional  emigrant  train 
or  chance  traveler  tQ  or  from  the  western  ocean.  Prior  to 
1847 — the  first  year  of  pioneer  occupancy — a  few  thousand 
Americans  had  settled  among  Indians  and  Spaniards  on  the 
Pacific  Coast;  but  none  had  settled  here.  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
with  its  surroundings,  was  a  region  coveted  by  none,  shunned 
by  all. 

"A  Vast,  Worthless  Area."— What  was  thought  at  that 
time  of  the  West  by  the  people  of  the  East,  is  told  in  a  speech 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  DESERT.  7 

said  to  have  been  delivered  by  Daniel  Webster  on  the  floor  of 
the  United  States  Senate.  Someone  had  proposed  the  estab- 
lishment by  the  United  States  Government,  of  a  mail  route 
from  Independence.  Missouri,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River;  and  Webster  opposed  the  movement  in  these  words: 
"What  do  we  want  with  this  vast,  worthless  area — this  region 
of  savages  and  wild  beasts,  of  deserts,  of  shifting  sands  and 
whirlwinds  of  dust,  of  cactus  and  prairie  dogs?  To  what  use 
could  we  ever  hope  to  put  these  great  deserts,  or  those  endless 
mountain  ranges?"* 

Yet  it  was  to  the  very  heart  of  this  "vast,  worthless  area, 
this  region  of  savages  and  wild  beasts,"  that  the  Pioneers  of 
Utah  made  their  way.  Here,  upon  Mexican  soil,  in  the  tops  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  the  midst  of  the  Great  American 
Desert,  they  lifted  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  an  American  State. 


*In  much  the  same  vein  Senator  McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina, 
riciculing,  in  1843,  the  idea  of  a  railroad  to  the  Great  West,  exclaimed: 
"What  is  the  nature  of  this  country?  *  *  *  Of  what  use  will  it  be 
for  agricultural  purposes?  Why,  I  would  not  for  that  purpose  give  a 
pinch  of  snuff  for  the  whole  territory.  I  thank  God  for  his  mercy  in 
placing  the  Rocky  Mountains  there." 


II. 

THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS. 

Native  Tribes. — Who  were  the  first  dwellers  in  the  desert 
—the  earliest  human  beings  to  inhabit  this  once  lonely  and  des- 
olate land?  A  question  for  the  archaeologist,  rather  than  for 
the  historian.  So  far  as  known,  the  original  occupants  of  the 
region  now  embraced  within  the  State  of  Utah  were  roving 
Indian  tribes,  the  aborigines  of  America.  Opinions  are  divided 
as  to  whether  these  included  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  a  strange  and 
interesting  people  the  remains  of  whose  work  may  be  seen  in 
recesses  of  the  rocks  in  Southern  Utah  and  other  parts.  Some 
authorities  identify  them  with  the  Moquis  and  Hopis  of  Ari- 
zona, while  others  give  them  a  much  greater  antiquity  than 
any  existing  red  race  can  boast.  This  much  may  be  said  :  The 
Cliff  Dwellers  were  here  long  before  the  savage  tribes  that 
were  found  by  the  Pioneers.  Utah  was  named  after  one  of 
those  tribes. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  that  wonderful  Indian  race,  the 
Aztecs,  who  founded  in  Mexico  the  empire  of  the  Montezu- 
mas,  on  their  way  thither  from  Azatlan,  an  unknown  country 
in  the  north,  halted  for  a  long  period  upon  the  shores  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake.  If  the  supposition  be  correct,  their  presence 
here  was  prior  to  1195  A.  D.,  about  which  time  the  Aztecs 
reached  the  Valley  of  Mexico.* 

Utes  and  Shoshones. — Unlike  the  Aztecs,  the  Utahs  or 
Utes  were  a  degraded  people.  They  neither  built  cities  nor 
founded  empires,  but  dwelt  in  caves  and  wigwams,  and 
lived  mainly  by  fishing  and  hunting.  Part  of  their  food  was 
wild  roots  dug  from  the  ground,  and  nuts  and  berries  picked 
from  bushes  growing  by  the  mountain  streams.  They  also 
ate  crickets  and  grasshoppers  (locusts). f  The  Utes  were  a 
warlike  race,  and  often  fought  fiercely  among  themselves. 
Their  most  hated  foes  were  the  Shoshones  or  Snake  Indians, 
who  roamed  over  a  region  east  and  north  of  the  Great  Salt 
Lake,  while  the  Utes  inhabited  the  country  south.  They 
ranged  over  an  area  extending  from  California  to  New  Mex- 
ico. The  Utes  were  divided  into  several  bands  under  different 
chieftains, "united  by  a  common  language  and  affinities."  They 
cherished  many  traditions  pointing  to  prominent  events  in  the 

*.Tames  D.  McCabe,  "History  of  the  World,"  p.  1234. 

tThe  crickets  were  driven  by  swarms  into  fires,  and  thus  roasted. 
The  grasshoppers  were  dried  in  the  sun,  and  then  pounded  into  meal, 
from  which  cakes  were  made,  said  to  be  tasteful  and  not  at  all  unwhole- 
some, even  to  white  men  who  were  at  times  feasted  upon  them,  not 
knowing  of  what  they  were  composed. 


THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS.  9 

world's  history,  such  as  the  Creation,  the  Flood,  and  the  Res- 
urrection of  Christ."* 

Spanish  Explorers — Coronado — Cardenas. — The  first  white 
men  who  are  known  to  have  entered  the  Utah  region,  were  a 
small  party  of  Spaniards,  soldiers  in  the  army  of  Francisco  Vaz- 
quez de  Coronado,  the  explorer  of  New  Mexico.  This  was  in 
the  year  1540.  What  is  now  Utah  was  then  a  part  of  Mexico, 
and  Mexico  belonged  to  Spain.  Coronado,  having  been  ap- 
pointed governor  of  NuevaGalicia,  headed  an  expedition  north- 
ward in  search  of  Cibola  and  the  Seven  Cities,  concerning  which 
a  Spanish  priest,  Marcos  de  Nizza,  had  reported  to  the  Mexi- 
can authorities.  While  in  New  Mexico,  Coronado  heard  of  a 
great  river  to  the  northwest,  and  sent  Captain  Garcia  Lopez  de 
Cardenas,  with  twelve  men,  to  explore  it.  By  way  of  the  Mo- 
quis  villages,  Cardenas  and  his  comrades  came  as  far  as  the 
south  bank  of  the  Colorado,  but  did  not  cross  the  river.  They 
soon  returned  to  report  to  their  commander  at  Cibola  (Zuni). 


PUEBLO   HOMES. 


Escalante  and  Dominguez. — In  July,  1776,  two  Spanish 
friars  of  the  Franciscan  order,  Father  Sylvestre  Velez  de  Esca- 
lante and  Father  Francisco  Atanasio  de  Dominguez,  set  out 
with  seven  men  from  Santa  Fe,  in  quest  of  a  direct  route  to 

*See  James  Linforth'.?  "Liverpool  Route,"  published  in  1855;  also 
a  pamphlet  issued  by  Dimick  B.  Huntington,  Indian  interpreter,  in 
1872,  and  reproduced  in  the  "Improvement  Era"  for  October,  1914. 


10    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Monterey,  on  the  California  sea-coast.  Monterey  had  then 
been  founded  about  six  years,  while  Santa  Fe  had  entered 
upon  the  latter  half  of  its  second  century.  The  California 
town  having  become  a  port  of  entry  for  goods  shipped  from 
Spain  and  southern  Mexico,  it  was  desirable  that  a  road  should 
be  opened  for  the  transmission  of  troops  and  supplies  from 
that  point  to  the  New  Mexican  capital.  Escalante,  who  had 
seen  missionary  service  among  the  Indians,  believed  that 
such  a  road  "could  be  discovered  by  passing  west  by  north- 
west through  the  land  of  the  Yutas."  He  convinced  the  Gov- 
ernor of  New  Mexico  that  the  project  was  feasible,  and  he  and 
his  brother  priest  were  placed  at  the  head  of  an  expedition  hav- 
ing that  discovery  in  view.  The  route  they  were  looking  for 
was  an  old  Spanish  trail  leading  westward  from  Taos. 

From  Santa  Fe  to  Utah  Lake. — Pursuing  a  devious  north- 
westerly course,  the  two  Franciscans,  with  their  party,  trav- 
ersed what  is  now  Western  Colorado,  and  crossed  White 
River,  flowing  west,  near  the  Utah  line.  After  passing  Green 
River,  ascending  the  Uintah,  and  reaching  the  Wasatch  Moun- 
tains, they  came  upon  the  headwaters  of  Provo  River,  or  one 
of  the  neighboring  streams,  and  followed  it  down  to  Utah 
Lake. 

The  Spaniards  were  kindly  received  by  the  native  "Yutas" 
("Timpanois")  living  in  willow  huts  in  the  valley,  but  could 

learn  nothing  of  a  route  to  the 
sea,  nor  of  white  settlers  in  all 
the  surrounding  region.  They 
were  told  of  a  valley  to  the 
northward,  in  which  was  a 
wonderful  lake  of  salt  water, 
upon  whose  shores  dwelt  "a 
numerous  and  quiet  nation" — 
the  Puaguampe  or  Sorcerers, 
speaking  the  language  of,  but 
not  otherwise  emulating  the 
hostile  Comanches,  whom  the 
Yutas  greatly  dreaded.  The 
Puaguampe  were  also  called 
Snake-eaters,  and  were  prob- 
ably identical  with  the  Snakes 
or  Shoshones  of  later  times. 

Escalante   described   Utah 
Valley — north  of  which  he  did 
not  go — as  level,  and,  except- 
ing  the    marshes    on    the    lake 
A  DANCING  UTE.  shore,  arable.     The  Spaniards 


THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS.  11 

named  the  Jordan  River  Santa  Ana.  Bear,  deer,  and  buffalo 
ranged  the  region  freely,  and  the  bounding  jack-rabbit  was 
also  plentiful.  The  streams  were  filled  with  fish,  and  the 
marshes  with  wild  fowl. 

Expedition  Abandoned. — Late  in  September  the  explor- 
ing party,  with  two  native  guides,  resumed  their  journey. 
Passing  down  the  Sevier  River,  which  they  christened  Santa 
Isabel,  they  skirted  the  eastern  shore  of  Sevier  Lake, and  cross- 
ing Beaver  River  and  the  adjacent  mountains,  visited  the 
valley  now  bearing  the  name  of  Escalante.  There,  owing  to 
the  exhaustion  of  their  food  supplies,  and  discouraged  by 
their  failure  to  learn  anything  of  an  open  route  to  the  Pacific, 
they  reluctantly  abandoned  the  expedition.  Traveling  east- 
ward toward  the  Colorado,  purchasing  as  they  went  seeds 
from  the  natives  with  which  to  make  bread,  they  came  to  the 
bank  of  the  great  river,  and  found;  after  much  difficulty,  a  ford 
near  where  Utah  and  Arizona  now  divide.  Crossing  the  Grand 
Canyon,  and  passing  thence  by  way  of  the  Moquis  villages, 
they  reached  Zuni,  and  in  due  time  Santa  Fe.* 

La  Hontan. — The  first  white  man  to  hear  of  the  Great  Salt 
Lake — if  credence  may  be  given  to  his  rather  fanciful  narrative 
—was  Baron  La  Hontan,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  the  French  colony 
at  Placentia,  Newfoundland.  His  story,  published  in  English  in 
1735,  tells^how,  in  1689,  he  sailed  up  "Long  River,"  described 
as  an  affluent  of  the  Mississippi,  for  a  period  of  six  weeks, 
passing  through  various  savage  tribes  until  he  came  near  the 
nation  of  the  "Gnacsitares."  There  he  met  four  captive  slaves, 
"Mozeemleks,"  who  gave  him  an  account  of  the  country  from 
which  they  came.  Their  villages,  they  said,  stood  upon  a 
stream  springing  out  of  a  ridge  of  mountains  where  Long 
River  took  its  rise.  The  Mozeemleks  were  "numerous  and 
powerful."  La  Hontan  was  told  that,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
leagues  from  where  he  stood,  their  principal  river  flowed  into 
a  salt  lake,  three  hundred  leagues  in  circumference,  by  thirty 
in  breadth,  the  mouth  of  the  river  being  two  leagues  wide. 
Along  the  lower  part  of  the  stream  were  "six  noble  cities,"  and 
more  than  a  hundred  towns,  great  and  small,  surrounded  "that 
sort  of  sea."  The  lake  was  navigable  for  boats.  The  despotic 
government  of  the  land  was  "lodged  in  the  hands  of  one  great 
head,"  to  whom  the  rest  paid  "trembling  submission." 

Fremont,  the  Pathfinder. — Captain  John  C.  Fremont,  sur- 

*The  Journal  or  Diario  of  Father  Escalante.  kept  during  his  jour- 
ney to  and  from  Utah  Lake,  is  preserved  in  the  National  Library  of  the 
City  of  Mexico.  H.  H.  Bancroft  draws  upon  it  in  part  for  his  History 
of  Utah,  and  Dean  Harris,  in.  his  work,  presents  what  is  claimed  to  be 
the  first  English  translation  of  the  entire  document. 


12    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


named  "The  Pathfinder,"  came  to  the  shores  of  the  Great  Salt 
Lake  in  the  autumn  of  1843,  after  crossing  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains on  his  second  explor- 
ing expedition  to  the  West. 
The  year  before  he  had  ven- 
tured only  as  far  as  South 
Pass.  Accompanied  by  "Kit" 
Carson  and  others,  he  now 
entered  "The  Great  Basin," 
and  on  the  sixth  of  Septem- 
ber, from  the  crest  of  an  ele- 
vated peninsula  (Low  Moun- 
tain), a  little  north  of  We- 
ber River,  caught  his  first 
glimpse  of  America's  "Dead 
Sea."  Launching  his  rubber 
boat  he  explored  Fremont 
Island,  named  by  him  Dis- 
appointment Island,  because 
he  failed  to  find  there  the 
fertile  fields  and  abundant 
game  he  had  anticipated.* 
Fremont  seems  to  have 
CAPTAIN  FREMONT.  thought  it  probable  that  he 

was  the  first  white  man,  if  not  to  see,  at  least  to  use  a  boat 
upon,  this  remarkable  body  of  water.  The  Lake,  however,  had 
been  discovered  and  boats  launched  upon  it  many  years  before 
the  Pathfinder  appeared  upon  the  scene. 

The  Fur  Hunters — James  Bridger. — Early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  this  region  had  been  overrun  by  British  and 
American  fur  hunters,  one  of  whom,  James  Bridger,  commonly 
known  as  Colonel  Bridger,  claimed  to  have  discovered  the 
Lake  in  1825.f 
Bridger  was  then  trapping  on  Bear  River.  In  order  to 

*Disappointment  Island  was  renamed  Fremont  Island  by  Captain 
Howard  Stansbufy,  U.  S.  A.,  in  1849. 

f  John  Jacob  Astor,  of  New  York  City,  was  the  patriarch  of  the  fur 
trade  in  the  United  States.  As  told  by  Washington  Irving,  in  his  enter- 
taining volume  "Astoria."  Astor  founded  the  American  Fur  Company, 
in  1808-1809,  and  later  established  Astoria,  an  Indian  trading  post,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River.  His  plan  was  to  have  a  line  of  such 
posts  along  the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia,  with  Astoria  as  the  em- 
porium or  base  of  supplies.  This  was  the  first  attempt  by  an  American 
citizen  to  break  the  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  inherited  by  the  British 
from  the  French  at  the  conquest  of  Canada.  Astor  desired  New  York, 
instead  of  London,  to  be  the  main  market  for  the  lucrative  trade  in 
American  peltries.  He  proposed  to  dispute  the  supremacy  of  the  Brit- 
ish fur  companies  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Great  West,  and  at 
the  same  time  form  a  friendly  alliance  with  the  Russian  Fur  Company, 
which  supplied  St.  Petersburg  and  the  Chinese  Empire  with  the  prod- 


THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS. 


13 


decide  a  wager  among  his  men,  as  to  the  probable  course  of 
that  stream,  he  followed  it  through  the  mountains  to  the  lake 
shore.  In  1827  four  men  explored  the  Lake  with  skin  boats, 
and  reported  that  it  had  no  outlet.  Many  supposed  it  to  be 
an  arm  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Colonel  Bridger  established,  on 

Black's  Fork  of  Green  River,  a 
trading  post  known  as  Fort 
Bridger,  the  site  of  which  is 
now  in  southwestern  Wyoming 
Trappers  and  Traders. — 
Other  names  borne  by  various 
objects  in  this  region  were 
those  of  scouts,  trappers  and 
traders  in  early  times.  Among 
them  may  be  mentioned  Peter 
Skeen  Ogden,  of  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  and  Etienne 
Provot,  for  whom  Provo  River 
was  named.  Weber  River  was 
christened  for  a  trapper  on  that 
stream.  General  Ashley's  name 
still  clings  to  Ashley's  Fork, 
and  Major  Henry's,  to  the 
Henry  Mountains.  Carson 
River,  now  in  Nevada,  took  its 
name  from  Christopher  ("Kit")  Carson. 

nets  of  this  industry  on  American  shores.  Astoria,  captured  by  the 
British  during  the  war  of  1812%  became  a  trading  post  of  the  Northwest 
Fur  Company,  which  retained  possession  of  it  after  the  war.  The 
Northwest  Company,  after  a  ruinous  competition  with  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  another  British  concern,  was  merged  into  the  latter 
organization,  which  thenceforth  controlled  most  of  the  fur  trade  from 
Alaska  to  California,  and  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  They  removed  their  emporium  from  Astoria  (Fort  George) 
to  Fort  Vancouver,  sixty  miles  up  the  Columbia  River,  and  from  that 
point  continued  to  furnish  their  interior  posts  and  send  forth  their 
brigades  of  trappers. 

The  American  fur  traders  were  at  first  content  to  follow  up  the 
head  branches  of  the  Missouri,  the  Yellowstone,  and  other  rivers  and 
streams  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  1822  General 
William  N.  Ashley,  of  St.  Louis,  with  Major  Andrew  Henry,  the  first 
American  to  trap  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Columbia,  founded  a  trad- 
ing oost  on  the  Yellowstone,  and  during  the  following  year  pushed  a 
resolute  band  of  trappers  into  the  Green  River  country.  This  attempt 
was  succeeded  by  others,  until  in  1825  a  footing  was  secured  and  a 
complete  system  of  trapping  organized  west  of  the  Rockie/s.  In  1830 
Ashley,  with  William  Sublette,  Robert  Campbell,  James  Bridger, 
Thomas  Fitzpatrick,  Jedediah  S.  Smith  and  others,  formed  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Fur  Company,  which  had  at  one  time  a  fort  on  Utah  Lake, 
then  Lake  Ashley.  Ashley  named  Green  River  after  one  of  his  com- 
panions, and  is  said  to  have  embarked  upon  that  stream  with  a  fleet  of 
rafts  loaded  with  peltries,  thinking  he  could  drift  down  to  St.  Louis. 


COLONEL  BRIDGER. 


14     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Captain  Bonneville. — In  November,  1833,  came  Captain 
Benjamin  Bonneville,  U.  S.  A.,  whose  adventures  in  the  West 
were  immortalized  by  Washington  Irving.  Of  French  par- 
entage, but  of  American  rearing,  Bonneville  was  a  graduate 
of  West  Point,  and  had  been  stationed  at  various  military 
posts  on  the  frontier,  prior  to  undertaking  his  renowned  ex- 
pedition. Having  obtained  leave  of  absence,  he  enlisted  over 
one  hundred  men,  most  of  whom  had  had  experience  in  the 
Indian  country,  and  in  May,  1832,  set  out  from  Fort  Osage, 
on  the  Missouri  River.  Crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains,  he 
made  a  tour  through  the  Northwest,  and  coming  south, 

camped  on  Bear  River.  He 
wrote  a  description  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake,  and  direct- 
ed some  of  his  men  to  ex- 
plore it;  but  they  wandered 
from  their  course,  and  at 
Monterey  wasted  their  means 
in  riotous  living,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  their  com- 
mander. Bonneville  had 
come  west  not  merely  for 
adventure,  but  to  trade  with 
the  Indians  on  his  own  ac- 
count, and  to  study  their 
customs  and  the  character  of 
the  country  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Federal  Government. 
He  brought  twenty  wagons, 
loaded  with  Indian  goods,  provisions,  and  ammunition,  and  is 
believed  to  have  been  the  first  to  use  ox  teams  upon  this  line 
of  travel. 

Bonneville's  hope  was  to  revive  the  American  fur  trade 
on  the  Columbia  River,  but  he  was  hampered  by  the  powerful 
influence  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  which  held  almost 
absolute  sway  over  the  Indian  tribes;  a  condition  deemed 
perilous  to  the  United  States.  The  Company's  representa- 
tives refused  to  sell  supplies  to  Bonneville  so  long  as  he  was 
conducting  a  rival  enterprise,  and  it  was  this  circumstance 
that  compelled  him  to  move  southward.* 

*Back  from  his  expedition  in  1835,  the  explorer,  while  at  the  coun- 
try home  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  met  Washington  Irving,  and  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  great  narrator  hrs  journals  descriptive  of  his  inter- 
esting experiences.  The  result  was  the  publication,  in  1837,  of  "The 
Adventures  of  Captain  Bonneville."  In  honor  of  the  captain,  Irving 
named  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  "Lake  Bonneville."  but  history  would  not 
have  it  so,  preferring  that  the  ancient  fossil  sea  should  bear  that  name. 


CAPTAIN  BONNEVILLE. 


THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS.  15 

Missionaries  and  Emigrants — The  Mirage. — In  1832  par- 
ties of  missionaries,  men  and  women,  crossed  the  country  to 
the  Pacific  Coast,  and  about  that  time  a  few  American  emi- 
grants settled  in  Oregon.  Not  until  1841,  however,  did  reg- 
ular emigration  to  California  begin. 

Among  the  earliest  to  reach  the  future  land  of  gold  by 
way  of  the  Utah  region,  were  James  Bidwell  and  Josiah  Bel- 
den,  both  prominent  in  Western  history  of  a  later  period. 
They  recorded  their  impressions  of  the  overland  journey  in  a 
series  of  articles  published  in  leading  American  magazines. 
They  were  wonder-struck  by  the  phenomenon  of  the  mirage, 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Salt  Lake  Desert,  regarding  which  Cap- 
tain Stansbury  afterwards  said:  "The  mirage,  which  fre- 
quently occurs,  is  greater  here  than  I  ever  witnessed  else- 
where, distorting  objects  in  the  most  grotesque  manner,  de- 
fying all  calculation  as  to  their  size,  shape,  or  distance,  and 
giving  rise  to  optical  illusions  almost  beyond  belief." 

International  Dispute  Over  Oregon. — When  the  first 
Americans  settled  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  California,  including 
Utah  and  Nevada,  was  a  province  of  Mexico;  while  Oregon, 
embracing  Washington,  Idaho  and  other  parts,  was  claimed 
by  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  The  dispute  over 
the  northwest  boundary  came  very  near  bringing  on  a  war 
between  the  two  nations.* 

The  Overland  Route. — Westward  travel  over  the  plains 

*The  United  States  laid  claim  to  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  from  the  northern  line  of  California  to  the  southern  bound- 
ary of  Alaska,  or  the  parallel  of  54°  40'.  Hence  the  phrase,  "Fifty-four 
Forty  or  Fight,"  a  Democratic  political  slogan  of  that  period.  The 
British  claim  extended  as  far  south  as  the  Columbia  River. 

Says  Dr.  Wilbur  F.  Gordy,  an  American  historian:  "We  had  sev- 
eral reasons  for  claiming  Oregon.  In  1792  Captain  Gray,  of  Boston, 
discovered  the  Columbia  River,  which  he  named  in  honor  of  his  ship; 
in  1805  Lewis  and  Clark  explored  this  river,  and  in  1811  an  American 
company  established  at  its  mouth  the  trading  post  Astoria.  But  we 
made  a  yet  stronger  claim  by  reason  of  the  actual  settlements  which 
Americans  planted  there  before  1845.  These  settlements  began  in  a 
small  way  as  early  as  1832.  *  *  *  In  this  matter  of  planting  settle- 
ments we  had  the  advantage  of  England,  because  we  were  nearer  the 
disputed  territory.  For  a  long  time,  to  be  sure,  the  English  Hudson 
Bay  Company  had  been  out  there  making  money  in  fur  trading,  but 
this  company  had  planted  no  settlement.  *  *  *  The  English  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  held  only  a  small  number  of  military  posts  and 
trading  stations.  The  United  States  could  therefore  claim  the  country 
by  right  of  actual  possession." — "History  of  the  United  States,"  pp. 
269,  270. 

The  controversy  became  serious,  but  a  clash  of  arms  was  happily 
averted.  In  1846,  after  a  joint  occupancy,  each  country,  by  treaty, 
gave  up  a  part^of  its  claim,  and  the  boundary  line  was  then  fixed  at 
49°,  where  it  still  remains. 


16     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

usually  started  from  Independence,  Missouri,  which  was  then 
on  the  frontier  of  the  United  States.  Most  of  the  emigrants 
traveled  in  companies,  for  society,  aid  and  protection.  Those 
not  already  provided  with  outfits  procured  them  on  the  fron- 
tier, each  family  requiring  one  or  more  covered  wagons 
("prairie  schooners")  loaded  with  provisions  and  supplies. 
As  a  rule  the  wagons  were  drawn  by  oxen,  and  four  or  five 
months  were  consumed  in  journeying  over  plains  and  moun- 
tains to  the  sea.  The  usual  route  of  travel  was  up  the  Platte 
River,  past  Forts  Kearney  and  Laramie,  and  thence  along  the 
Sweetwater  and  through  South  Pass.  West  of  the  Pass — 
now  in  Wyoming — those  going  to  Oregon  turned  northward 
to  Fort  Hall;  while  those  bound  for  California  followed  Bear 
River  to  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  then, 
turning  westward  to  Humboldt  River,  crossed  the  country  to 
the  Sierra  Nevada.* 

The  Donner  Party. — One  of  those  early  emigrant  com- 
panies was  extremely  unfortunate.  The  Donner  Party,  as  it 
was  called,  comprised  eighty-seven  men,  women  and  children, 
led  by  George  Donner  and  James  F.  Reed.  They  left  Inde- 
pendence late  in  April  or  early  in  May,  1846,  and  in  July 
reached  Fort  Bridger.  There  they  tarried  several  days  before 
setting  out  for  California.  The  usual  route  from  Fort  Bridger 
was  by  way  of  Bear  River,  Fort  Hall,  and  the  northern  shore 
of  the  Great  Salt  Lake;  but  another  route,  just  beginning  to 
be  traveled,  passed  through  Echo  and  Weber  Canyons  and 
around  the  south  side  of  the  Lake.  This  was  called  "The  Hast- 
ings Cut-off,"  its  projector  being  Lansford  W.  Hastings,  a 
mountaineer  and  guide.  .Friends  of  Mr.  Reed,  who  had  pre- 
ceded him  to  California,  had  written,  warning  him  not  to  take 
the  cut-off,  but  to  travel  by  way  of  Fort  Hall.  That  letter  he 
never  received.  At  Fort  Bridger  he  and  his  companions  were 
persuaded  to  follow  the  new  trail  as  far  as  the  foot  of  Echo 
Canyon,  and  there  take  another  cut-off,  up  East  Canyon,  over 
the  Wasatch  Mountains,  and  down  the  gorge  now  known  as 
Emigration  Canyon.  • 

The  journey  was  exceedingly  difficult.  They  were  sixteen 
days  in  cutting  a  road  through  the  mountains.  Then  came  the 
crossing  of  the  desert,  where  many  of  their  cattle  died  for 
want  of  grass  and  water,  while  others  wandered  away  or 
were  stolen  by  Indians.  Some  of  the  wagons  had  to  be  left 


*Fort  Kearney  (Nebraska)  was  a  Government  post,  and  Fort 
Laramie  (Wyoming)  also  became  one,  though  formerly  a  station  of 
the  American  Fur  Company.  Fort  Hall  (Idaho),  an  establishment  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  though  it  was  in  the  same  region,  is  not  to 
be  confounded  with  the  post  now  bearing  that  name. 


THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS.  17 

behind.  Delayed  by  these  and  other  misfortunes,  the  ill-fated 
emigrants  did  not  strike  the  main  trail  on  the  Humboldt  until 
late  in  September,  after  the  last  companies  of  the  season  had 
gone  by.  Another  month  brought  them  to  Truckee  Pass, 
where  early  snows  blocked  the  way.  Some  killed  their  cattle 
and  went  into  winter  quarters,  while  others  delayed  building 
cabins  until  heavier  snows  fell. 

A  Tragic  Fate. — It  was  now  December;  their  provisions 
were  almost  gone,  and  starvation  stared  the  unfortunate  trav- 
elers in  the  face.  A  number  of  them,  putting  on  snow  shoes, 
crossed  the  stormy  mountains  to  New  Helvetia  (Sacra- 
mento) ;  but  before  reaching  there  several  died  from  cold,  hun- 
ger, and  exhaustion,  and  the  others,  in  order  to  save  them- 
selves, ate  the  flesh  of  the  dead.  Relief  parties  were  sent  back 
to  the  main  company,  and  most  of  them  were  saved ;  but  thirty- 
nine  of  the  original  eighty-seven  perished.  The  survivors, 
when  found,  had  been  living  for  weeks  like  cannibals.  The 
last  one  was  picked  up  in  April,  1847,  the  same  month  that 
the  Pioneers  of  Utah  set  out  for  the  West. 


III. 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY   PILGRIMS. 

1846. 

The  Latter-day  Saints. — Utah  owes  her  existence  as  a 
commonwealth  to  a  movement  similar  in  some  of  its  phases 
to  that  which  peopled  New  England  with  representatives  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  No  history  of  the  United  States  could 

be  written  without  reference  to 
the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans;  and 
no  history  of  Utah  would  be 
possible  without  allusion  to  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  or  "Mor- 
mons." This  religious  commu- 
nity sent  forth  the  Pioneers 
who  founded  Utah,  and  it  also 
furnished  much  the  greater 
part  of  the  immigration  that 
subsequently  built  up  the  State. 
The  principal  achievements  of 
the  "Gentile,"  or  non-Mormon 
portion  of  our  people,  though 
highly  important,  are  of  a  later 
period  than  the  work  done  by 
the  Pioneers  and  those  who 
followed  immediately  after 
them.* 

Civilization  Amidst  Sav- 
agery.— Those  early  settlers 
were  the  vanguard  of  progress, 
the  builders  of  empire  in  the 
barren  heart  of  the  West.  They 

planted  civilization  in  the  midst  of  savagery,  and  to  them,  more 
than   to   any   other  people,   owing  to   their  unity,   communal 

*The  Latter-day  Saints  are  called  "Mormons,"  because  of  their 
belief  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  a  record  of  prehistoric  America,  trans- 
lated into  English  by  Joseph  Smith,  who  declared  that  it  had  been 
divinely  revealed  to  him.  The  Book  of  Mormon  refers  to  the  people 
of  Europe  and  America  as  "Gentiles."  It  is  not  an  opprobrious  term. 
Springing  from  "Gentilis,"  signifying  "of  a  nation,"  it  was  used 
anciently  to  indicate  those  who  were  not  of  Israel,  but  who  were  de- 
scended from  Japheth,  son  of  Noah,  whose  son  Shem  was  ancestor  to 
the  Hebrew  patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob.  The  word  "Mor- 
mon," like  the  word  "Christian,"  was  originally  intended  as  a  term  of 
reproach,  but  no  such  intent  is  in  the  use,  by  Latter-day  Saints,  of  the 
word  "Gentile." 


JOSEPH  SMITH. 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY  PILGRIMS.  19 

spirit,  and  systematic  methods,  is  due  the  redemption  of  "Arid 
America."  Their  industry  and  that  of  their  successors  made 
the  desert  Basin  habitable.  The  founding-  of  Utah  greatly  fa- 
cilitated the  settlement  of  the  States  no.w  clustering-  around 
her. 

The  "Mormon"  Exodus. — "Mormonism's"  westward 
movement — referring  now  to  the  exodus  of  its  adherents  from 
the  United  States — began  almost  simultaneously  with  the  out- 
break of  the  Mexican  War.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints — commonly  known  as  the  "Mormon  Church" 
— was  then  about  completing  its  sixteenth  year.  It  had  mi- 
grated successively  from  three  States  in  the  Union — New 
York,  where  it  had  its  origin;  Ohio,  and  Missouri.  The  re- 
moval from  Missouri  was  compulsory;  it  was  the  result  of  re- 
ligious and  political  differences  between  the  "Mormon"  people 
and  other  inhabitants  of  that  State.  Joseph  Smith,  the  founder 
of  the  Church,  who  was  born  near  Sharon,  Vermont,  Decem- 
ber 23,  1805,  fell  a  victim  to  mob  violence  at  Carthage,  Illinois. 
June  27,  1844.  The  next  chapter  in  the  checkered  history  of 
his  followers  was  their  exodus  from  Illinois — their  enforced 
departure  into  the  western  wilderness. 

That  exodus  began  in  February,  1846,  and  in  April  the 
Mexican  War  broke  out.  By  that  time  the  main  body  of  the 
homeless  people,  with  their  heavily  loaded  wagons,  after  leav- 
ing Nauvoo,  their  main  city,  and  passing  the  frozen  Mississippi, 
were  well  on  their  way  across  Iowa,  approaching  the  threshold 
of  the  wilderness.  The  purpose  of  the  moving  community  was 
to  find  a  new  home  in  the  West.  About  the  middle  of  June 
their  vanguard  reached  the  Missouri  River,  and  encamped  tem- 
porarily at  Council  Bluffs,  on  the  Pottawattamie  Indian  lands. 
There  was  no  city — only  the  Bluffs,  where  Indian  chiefs  some- 
times sat  in  council. 

On  the  Threshold  of  the  Wilderness. — The  exiles  were 
now  upon  the  frontier,  the  extreme  western  fringe  of  civiliza- 
tion. Beyond  lay  the  broad  plains  where  the  savage  red  man 
roamed,  an  immense  tract  of  unoccupied  country,  out  of  which 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  the  Dakotas,  and  other  populous  States 
or  parts  of  States  have  since  been  formed.  It  was  a  portion  of 
the  Province  of  Louisiana,  once  held  by  Spain,  but  purchased, 
in  1803,  from  France  by  the  Federal  Government.* 

*This  was  the  greatest  event  in  the  administration  of  President 
Thomas  Jefferson.  Prior  to  that  time  the  area  of  the  United  States 
was  837,844  square  miles;  the  Louisiana  Purchase  added,  to  it 
1,171,931  square  miles.  After  the  purchase,  which  was  for  fifteen 
million  dollars,  and  pursuant  to  a  recommendation  by  the  Pres- 
ident to  Congress,  an  exploring  party  of  thirty  men,  under  Lewis  and 
Clark,  started  from  St.  Louis  on  a  northwesterly  journey  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  This  was  in  1804.  The  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  acquainted 


20    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Farther  west  were  the  snow-capped  summits  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  farther  still,  the  sunburnt  valleys  and  dry 
plateaus  of  the  Great  Basin,  separated  from  the  Pacific  Coast 
by  the  Sierra  Nevada  range.  West  of  that  rocky  barrier 
the  land  was  fertile,  sloping  down  to  the  sea;  but  eastward, 
for  many  a  weary  league,  it  was  a  waste,  almost  treeless  and 
waterless. 

Mexican  Possessions. — This  arid,  desolate  region  belonged 
to  Mexico,  which  country  had  thrown  off  foreign  rule  (1812-21) 
and  become  an  independent  nation,  inheriting  the  early  Spanish 
dominions  in  North  America.  The  present  States  of  California, 
Nevada,  and  Utah  wrere  parts  of  the  Mexican  province  of  Cal- 
ifornia, east  of  which  was  another  province,  New  Mexico,  in- 
cluding all  or  most  of  Arizona.  Oregon,  as  already  shown, 
was  claimed  both  by  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  The 
British  also  coveted  California.  Such  was  the  posture  of  af- 
fairs in  the  West  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  with  Mexico. 

The  Mexican  War. — The  original  cause  of  this  conflict 
was  the  annexation  of  Texas,  an  act  resented  by  Mexico,  who 
suspected  the  United  States  of  predatory  designs  upon  her  pos- 
sessions. Hostilities  began  on  the  Texan  frontier,  where  the 
victories  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  won  by  General 
Zachary  Taylor  early  in  May,  drove  the  Mexicans  across  the 
Rio  Grande.  There,  in  the  opinion  of  many  Americans,  the 
war  should  have  ended ;  but  the  majority  of  the  Nation,  and 
especially  the  South,  bent  upon  extending  slavery,  had  set  its 
heart  upon  more.  To  acquire  additional  territory  for  future 
States,  and  to  checkmate  Great  Britain  in  her  ambitious  de- 
signs upon  California,  the  strife  was  permitted  to  continue. 
President  Polk  was  authorized  by  Congress  to  call  for  fifty 
thousand  volunteers,  and  the  sum  of  ten  million  dollars  was 
voted  for  war  purposes.* 

the  American  people  with  the  extent  and  richness  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase. 

"Four  nations — France.  Spain,  Great  Britain,  and  the  United 
States,  were  concerned  in  determining  the  boundaries  of  this  territory. 
It  was  finally  agreed  that  American  Louisiana  should  extend  from  the 
Mississippi  along  the  thirty-first  parallel  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  thence 
along  the  Red  River  up  to  the  Arkansas,  and  thence  north  with  the 
mountain  chain  to  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude.  The  region 
practically  included  the  present  States  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Mis- 
souri, Iowa,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado,  the  Dakotas, 
Montana,  Wyoming,  and  Indian  Territory." — Edwin  Emerson,  Jr., 
"History  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  Vol.  I.  pp.  100,  101. 

*General  Grant,  in  his  "Personal  Memoirs,"  declares  the  Mexican 
War  "one  of  the  most  unjust  ever  waged  by  a  stronger  against  a 
weaker  nation."  Grant  and  his  great  antagonist,  Lee,  both  served  with 
distinction  during  the  strife.  James  Russell  Lowell,  in  the  "Biglow 
Papers,"  reflects  the  New  England  sentiment  against  the  war. 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY  PILGRIMS.  21 

Government  Aid  Solicited.— Shortly  before  these  events, 
and  immediately  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  exodus  from 
Illinois,  an  agent  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  acting  under  in- 
structions from  Brigham  Young,  who  had  succeeded  Joseph 
Smith  at  the  head  of  the  "Mormon"  community,  went  to  the 
City  of  Washington  to  solicit  government  aid  for  his  people. 
No  gift  of  money  or  of  other  means  was  asked — only  employ- 
ment in  freighting  provisions  and  naval  stores  to  Oregon  or 
other  points  on  the  Pacific.  That  agent,  Jesse  C.  Little,  repre- 
sented in  his  petition — presented  after  the  exodus  began — that 
many  of  his  co-religionists  had  already  left  Illinois  for  Cali- 
fornia, and  that  thousands  of  others,  in  the  United  States  and 
in  the  British  Isles,  would  go  there  as  soon  as  they  were  able.* 

President  Polk — Military  Plans. — President  Polk  received 
Mr.  .Little  kindly,  and  promised  to  do  what  he  could  for  the 
homeless  people.  He  referred  to  them  as  "loyal  Americans," 
against  whom  he  had  no  prejudice. 

Just  at  this  juncture  the  news  reached  Washington  that 
General  Taylor  had  fought  two  battles  with  the  Mexicans,  and 
these  tidings  determined  the  President  upon  taking  immediate 
possession  of  California,  and  using  some  of  the  migrating 
"Mormons"  as  part  of  the  force  necessary  for  that  purpose. 

It  was  decided  to  strike  Mexico  at  three  points ;  General 
Taylor  to  continue  operations  along  the  Rio  Grande ;  General 
Winfield  Scott,  the  commander-in-chief,  to  invade  Mexico  from 
the  Gulf  Coast ;  while  General  Stephen  Kearney,  with  a  third 
army,  marched  overland  to  capture  the  Mexican  provinces  in 
the  West.  A  portion  of  Kearney's  force  was  to  be  recruited 
from  the  "Mormon"  camps  on  the  frontier. 

The  Call  for  the  Mormon  Battalion. — The  first  intimation 
had  by  the  "Mormon"  leaders  respecting  this  purpose  of  the 
Government  was  the  appearance  at  Mt.  Pisgah,  one  of  their 
temporary  settlements  in  Iowa,  of  an  army  recruiting  officer, 
Captain  James  Allen,  who  issued  a  circular,  stating  the  author- 
ity under  which  he  acted,  and  making  known  the  wishes  of 
General  Kearney  regarding  the  troops  to  be  raised.  Having 
been  referred  to  headquarters  at  Council  Bluffs,  he  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  that  point,  to  confer  with  President  Brigham  Young 
and  his  associates. 

Captain  Allen's  "Circular  to  the  Mormons"  read  as  fol- 
lows: 

"I  have  come  among  yon,  instructed  by  Col.  S.  F.  Kearney,  of  the 
U.  S.  Army,  now  commanding  the  Army  of  the  West,  to  visit  the 

*"Upper  California"  was  the  specific  name  of  the  region  to  which 
the  Latter-day  Saints  \vere  migrating.  By  that  title  it  became  the 
theme  of  a  well  known  "Mormon**  hymn,  sung  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  during  the  period  of  the  early  settlement  of  the  Great  Basin. 


22     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Mormon  Camp,  and  to  accept  the  services  for  twelve  months  of  four 
or  five  companies  of  Mormon  men  who  may  be  willing  to  serve  their 
country  for  that  period  in  our  present  war  with  Mexico;  this  force  to 
unite  with  the  Army  of  the  West  at  Santa  Fe,  and  be  marched  thence 
to  California,  where  they  will  be  discharged. 

"They  will  receive  pay  and  rations,  and  other  allowances,  such 
as  other  volunteers  or  regular  soldiers  receive,  from  the  day  they  shall 
be  mustered  into  service,  and  will  be  entitled  to  all  comforts  and  ben- 
efits of  regular  soldiers  of  the  Army,  and  when  discharged,  as  con- 
templated, at  California,  they  will  be  given  gratis  their  arms  and 
accoutrements,  with  which  they  will  be  fully  equipped  at  Fort  Leav- 
enworth.  This  is  offered  to  the  Mormon  people  now — this  year — an 
opportunity  of  sending  a  portion  of  their  young  and  intelligent  men 
to  the  ultimate  destination  of  their  whole  people,  and  entirely  at  the 
expense  of  the  United  States,  and  this  advance  party  can  thus  pave 
the  way  and  look  out  the  land  for  their  brethren  to  come  after  them. 

"Those  of  the  Mormons  who  are  desirous  of  serving  their  country 
on  the  conditions  here  enumerated,  are  requested  to  meet  me  without 
delay  at  their  principal  camp  at  the  Council  Bluffs,  whither  I  am  going 
to  consult  with  their  principal  men,  and  'to  receive  and  organize  the 
force  contemplated  to  be  raised. 

"I  will  receive  all  healthy,  able-bodied  men  of  from  eighte  i  to 
forty-five  years  of  age. 

"].  ALLEN,  Captain  1st  Dragoons. 

"Camp  of  the  Mormons,  at  Mount  Pisgah,  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  miles  east  of  Council  Bluffs,  June  26th,  1846." 

Such  was  the  origin  of  the  call  for  the  Mormon  Battalion 
— five  hundred  able-bodied  men,  to  assist  the  United  States  in 
its  war  with  Mexico.  Coming"  at  such  a  time,  and  embodying 
a  proposition  so  different  from  the  one  submitted  by  Agent 
Little  at  Washington,  it  created  at  first  some  consternation.  A 
force  of  teamsters,  with  wagons,  to  freight  stores  and  supplies, 
was  one  thing;  a  battalion  of  five  hundred  fighting  men,  quite 
another.  In  the  midst  of  an  exodus  rife  with  dangers  and  hard- 
ships, the  services  of  that  number  of  men  could  ill  be  spared. 

Ready  to  March — A  Farewell  Ball. — There  was  no  hes- 
itation. "You  shall  have  your  battalion,  Captain  Allen,"  said 
President  Young,  "and  if  there  are  not  young  men  enough,  we 
will  take  the  old  men ;  and  if  they  are  not  enough,  we  will  take 
the  women  ;"  a  touch  of  grim  humor  tempering  the  sternness 
of  his  resolve.  Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane,  U.  S.  A.,  who  came 
with  Agent  Little  to  the  Bluffs,  summarized  the  incident  thus : 
"A  central  mass  meeting  for  council,  some  harangues  at  the 
more  remotely  scattered  camps,  an  American  flag  brought  out 
from  the  storehouse  of  things  rescued,  and  hoisted  to  the  top 
of  a  tree-mast,  and  in  three  days  the  force  was  reported,  mus- 
tered, organized,  and  ready  to  march." 

The  date  of  enlistment  was  the  sixteenth  of  July.  Five 
hundred  and  forty-nine  persons,  including  several  families  of 
women  and  children  who  went  with  their  husbands  and  fath- 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY  PILGRIMS.  23 

ers,  composed  the  Battalion.  The  five  companies  were  com- 
manded respectively  by  Captains  Jefferson  Hunt,  Jesse  D. 
Hunter,  James  Brown,  Nelson  Higgins,  and  Daniel  C.  Davis. 
A  farewell  ball  in  "Father  Taylor's  Bowery,"  an  expansive 
arbor  of  poles  and  brush,  where,  to  the  music  of  violin,  horn, 
triangle,  bells  and  tambourine,  "the  glowing  hours"  of  a  mid- 
summer afternoon  were  merrily  chased  and  consumed,  was 
followed  by  the  inevitable  sadness  of  parting. 

Why  Men  Were  Scarce. — A  word  here  in  explanation  of 
the  scarcity  of  able-bodied  men  in  the  "Mormon"  camps.  In 
the  first  place,  not  all  the  fugitives  from  Illinois  had  made  or 
were  making  their  way  to  the  Iowa  frontier.  Many  had  gone 
to  St.  Louis,  which  city  became  almost  a  gathering  place  for 
the  scattered  people,  an  outfitting  point  for  much  of  their  over- 
land emigration.  In  the  next  place,  many  heads  of  families, 
after  starting  for  the  frontier,  had  been  compelled  to  leave 
their  wives  and  children  in  tents  and  wagons  on  the  prairie, 
while  they  went  into  Missouri  to  get  work  and  win  bread  for 
those  dependent  upon  them.  Moreover,  hundreds  of  the  fu- 
gitives were  aged,  ill  or  infirm,  and  had  to  be  cared  for  by  the 
healthy  and  strong.  In  some  instances,  delicate  women  and 
children  of  tender  years  had  been  driving  team  and  tending 
stock,  owing  to  the  limited  number  of  men  available. 

An  Obsolete  View. — The  extreme  view  that  the  call  for 
this  Battalion  was  a  hostile  move  on  the  part  of  the  General 
Government,  having  as  its  object  the  weakening  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" community,  and  its  probable  dispersion  or  destruction 
by  Indians  beyond  the  frontier,  finds  few  if  any  supporters  at 
the  present  time.  That  the  mob  leaders  of  Missouri  and  Illi- 
nois desired  the  destruction  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  was  evi- 
dent from  their  acts ;  and  that  some  of  the  national  leaders 
were  influenced  by  such  characters,  is  equally  undeniable ;  but 
it  is  not  believed  that  the  United  States  was  a  party  to  any 
conspiracy  of  that  kind.  A  nation,  state,  or  community  should 
not  be  held  responsible  for  the  misdeeds  or  evil  designs  of  indi- 
viduals unless  it  directs  or  sanctions  them. 

A  March  Without  Parallel. — The  Battalion  was  equip- 
ped at  Fort  Leavenworth.  While  it  tarried  at  the  frontier  post, 
its  recruiting  officer  and  commander,  Captain  Allen,  who  had 
endeared  himself  to  every  member  of  the  force,  fell  sick  and 
died.  Lieutenant  A.  J.  Smith  succeeded  to  the  command,  and 
marched  the  Battalion  as  far  as  Santa  Fe,  which  town  had 
previously  surrendered  to  General  Kearney.  There, by  the  Gen- 
eral's order,  Colonel  Philip  St.  George  Cooke,  a  regular  army 
officer,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the"Mormon" volunteers, who 
then  began  their  arduous  march  across  the  dreary  plains  and 
rugged  mountains  of  New  Alexico,  into  southern  California. 


24    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Their  route  was  by  way  of  the  Rio  Grande,  the  Gila,  the  Col- 
orado and  the  San  Pedro.  From  the  Missouri  to  the  Pacific, 
they  tramped  a  distance  of  over  two  thousand  miles,  pioneer- 
ing" much  of  the  way  through  an  unknown  wilderness.  Colonel 
Cooke  said  of  this  achievement:  "History  may  be  searched  in 
vain  for  an  equal  march  of  infantry."  Short  rations,  lack  of 
water,  with  excessive  toil  in  road  making,  well-digging,  and 
over-marching,  caused  much  suffering,  some  sickness,  and  sev- 
eral deaths  in  the  Battalion.  Even  before  reaching  Santa  Fe 
many  were  disabled  and  prevented  from  going  farther.  These 
invalid  detachments — less  than  one  hundred  men,  with  most 
of  the  women  and  all  the  children — were  put  in  charge  of  Cap- 
tains Brown  and  Higgins  and  ordered  to  Pueblo,  now  in  Col- 
orado. The  main  body,  including  four  or  five  women  who  ac- 
companied their  husbands,  pushed  on  to  the  Pacific  Coast, 
arriving  near  San  Diego  late  in  January,  1847. 

Conquest  of  California. — General  Kearney,  by  a  more 
direct  route,  had  reached  California  some  time  earlier,  though 
with  only  a  few  men,  having  disbanded  most  of  his  force  upon 
learning  that  the  province  was  already  in  possession  of  the 
United  States.  Colonel  John  C.  Fremont,  who  was  exploring 
west  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  when  the  war  broke  out,  had  rallied 
the  American  settlers  of  Sacramento  Valley,  and  in  co-opera- 
tion with  Commodores  Sloat,  Montgomery,  and  Stockton,  all 
but  subdued  the  country  before  Kearney  came. 

Services  of  the  Battalion — 
Discharge  and  Re-enlistment. — 

Cooke's  command  had  driven 
out  the  Mexican  garrison  of 
Tucson,  but  it  had  no  other  op- 
portunity to  engage  the  enemy. 
Its  most  exciting  experience 
was  a  "battle  with  the  bulls" 
on  the  San  Pedro  River,  where 
the  volunteers  were  attacked 
by  an  army  of  wild  cattle,  and 
narrowly  escaped  dispersion  if 
not  destruction,  from  the  fierce 
horns  and  hoofs  of  the  innu- 
merable horde. 

Fort-building  and  garrison 
service  were  the  principal  oc- 
cupations of  the  Battalion  men 
during  their  remaining  months 
of  service.  They  were  quar- 
COLONEL  COOKE.  tered  at  San  Diego,  San  Luis 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY  PILGRIMS.  25 

del  Rey,  and  Los  Angeles,  and  performed  their  duties  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  call  forth  the  commendation  of  the  United 
States  officers,  and  at  the  same  time  to  win  the  good  will  qf  the 
conquered  Californians.  While  in  garrison  they  were  permit- 
ted to  accept  outside  employment,  offered  them  by  civilians  in 
the  towns  where  they  were  stationed.  They  made  and  burnt 
the  first  bricks  in  San  Diego,  and  probably  in  all  California.  A 
squad  of  them  served  as  General  Kearney's  escort  when,  in 
May,  he  set  out  for  Washington,  accompanied  by  Colonel  Fre- 
mont, the  latter  charged  with  insubordination  for  refusing  to 
recognize  the  General's  authority. 

In  July,  at  the  expiration  of  their  year's  term  of  enlist- 
ment, the  Battalion  was  honorably  discharged  at  Los  Angeles. 
There,  at  the  urgent  request  of  Governor  R.  B.  Mason,  Kear- 
ney's successor  as  military  commandant,  eighty-one  men  re- 
enlisted,  and  were  ordered  back  to  garrison  San  Diego.*  Their 
comrades  set  out  to  rejoin  their  families  or  friends,  whom  they 
had  left  upon  the  far  away  frontier. 

The  Brannan  Colony. — Mention  must  be  made  of  the  part 
played  by  the  Brannan  colony  in  California.  They  came  from 
New  York  by  sea  around  Cape  Horn  to  the  Bay  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  were  the  first  "Mormons"  to  set  foot  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  This  was  in  1846.  They  numbered  two  hundred  and 
thirty-five  men,  women,  and  children,  and  were  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Samuel  Brannan,  who  in  New  York  had  edited  a 
paper  called  "The  Prophet,"  published  in  the  interest  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints.  The  company  was  well  supplied  with  farm- 
ing implements,  mechanics'  tools,  and  all  the  equipment  neces- 
sary for  the  founding  of  a  new  settlement.  The  ship  "Brook- 
lyn," upon  which  they  sailed,  left  New  York  early  in  February, 

*Governor  Mason,  in  his  report  to  the  Adjutant  General,  Septem- 
ber 18,  1847,  said:  "Of  the  services  of  the  Battalion,  of  their  patience, 
subordination,  and  general  good  conduct,  you  have  already  heard;  and 
Itake  great  pleasure  in  adding  that  as  a  body  of  men  they  have  relig- 
iously respected  the  rights  and  feelings  of  this  conquered  people;  not 
a  syllable  of  complaint  has  reached  my  ear  of  a  single  insult  offered  or 
outrage  done  by  a  Mormon  volunteer.  So  high  an  opinion  did  I  enter- 
tain of  the  Battalion,  and  of  their  special  fitness  for  the  duties  now 
performed  by  the  garrisons  in  this  country,  that  I  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  engage  their  services  for  another  year." 

Henry  G.  Boyle,  one  of  the  volunteers,  gives  to  history  the  follow- 
ing item  of  information:  "I  think  I  white-washed  all  San  Diego.  We 
did  their  blacksmithing,  put  up  a  bakery,  made  and  repaired  carts,  and, 
in  fine,  did  all  we  could  to  benefit  ourselves  as  well  as  the  citizens. 
We  never  had  any  trouble  with  the  Californians  or  Indians,  nor  they 
with  us.  The  citizens  became  so  attached  to  us,  that  before  our  term 
of  service  expired  they  got  up  a  petition  to  the  Governor  to  use  his 
influence  to  keep  us  in  the  service.  The  petition  was  signed  by  every 
citizen  in  the  town." 


26     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  landed  at  Yerba  Buena  (San  Francisco)  on  the  last  day 
of  July.* 

On  the  San  Joaquin  River,  the  Brannan  colony  plowed, 
put  in  crops,  and  built  houses  of  adobe  or  sun-dried  brick.  In 
one  of  these  they  set  up  a  printing  press,  which  they  had 
brought  with  them,  and  issued  "The  California  Star,"  the  sec- 
ond newspaper  established  in  the  province. 

The  Benson  Scheme. — Samuel  Brannan  was  a  man  of  en- 
ergy and  ability,  but  of  pronounced  speculative  tendencies. 
Before  leaving  New  York  he  had  entered  into  a  compact  with 
one  A.  G.  Benson,  representing  certain  political  and  financial 
schemers  at  Washington,  D.  C,  who,  aware  of  the  pending 
exodus,  proposed  to  profit  by  it.  This  compact,  which  Brannan 
sent  to  Nauvoo  for  signatures,  required  the  "Mormon"  leaders 
to  transfer  to  A.  G.  Benson  and  Company  and  to  their  heirs 
and  assigns,  the  odd  numbers  of  all  the  lands  and  town  lots 
that  might  be  acquired  in  the  country  settled  by  them  and  their 
people.  If  they  refused  to  sign,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  it  was  threatened,  would  proclaim  that  it  was  their  in- 
tention to  join  with  Great  Britain  or  Mexico  against  this  Na- 
tion, and  would  send  troops  to  disarm  and  disperse  them.  If 
they  signed  they  were  to  be  protected  and  allowed  to  proceed 
on  their  way.  Such  was  the  substance  of  Brannan's  letter  to 
Brigham  Young,  enclosing  a  copy  of  this  precious  agreement. 

Appropriate  Action.- — President  Young  and  his  associates 
considered  the  matter  at  a  council  held  on  Sugar  Creek,  Iowa, 
soon  after  leaving  Nauvoo.  They  resolved  to  treat  the  propo- 
sition with  the  contempt  that  it  inspired.  To  A.  G.  Benson  and 
Company  not  even  an  answer  was  deigned.  On  went  the  exiles 
to  the  Iowa  frontier,  and  the  next  news  from  them  related  to 
the  enlistment  of  the  Battalion,  whose  story  has  been  briefly 
told. 


*From  the  East  to  the  Pacific  Coast  there  were  three  routes  of 
travel,  two  of  them  by  sea.  One  doubled  Cape  Horn,  one  crossed  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  the  third  was  from  the  frontier  over  the 
plains. 


IV. 
THE  PIONEERS. 

1847. 

A    Predicted    Exodus. — The    removal    of   the    Latter-day 
Saints  to  the  West  had  been  contemplated  by  President  Joseph 
Smith  several  years  before  his  tragic  death  at  Carthage.     He 
had  even  organized  an  expedition  to  explore  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains,   and    had    indicated    in    a 
general    way    the    place    where 
his  people  were  to  settle.     Had 
he    lived,    he    probably    would 
have  led  them  to  the  land  that 
they  now  inhabit.     The  project 
fell   as  a  legacy  to  his  succes- 
sor,   Brigham   Young,   and   the 
men  surrounding  him.* 
Preparations    for    Departure. 
—Prior  to  their  departure  from 
Illinois    the    "Mormon"    lead- 
ers  had   made   themselves   ac- 
quainted,   as    far    as    possible, 
with      the      western      country, 
through  reading  books  and  ex- 
amining maps  published  by  ex- 
plorers  and   other   travelers   in 
this  region.     Heber  C.  Kimball, 
one    of    the    Apostles    of    the 
Church,   and   familiarly  known 
as     "Brigham     Young's     right- 
hand  man,"  mentions  this  cir- 
cumstance in  his  private  journal.! 

The  Pioneer  Project. — At  Mount  Pisgah,  soon  after  the 
beginning  of  the  exodus,  President  Young  called  a  council  at 
which,  as  related  by  Orson  Pratt,  it  was  determined  to  send  a 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG. 


*At  Montrose,  Iowa,  on  the  6th  of  August,  1842,  Joseph  Smith  pre- 
dicted that  the  Latter-day  Saints  would  be  driven  westward,  and  would 
found  settlements  and  "become  a  mighty  people  in  the  midst  of  the 
Rock}-  Mountains." — History  of  the  Church,  Vol.  5,  pp.  85,  86. 

tit  is  thus  recorded:  "Nauvoo  Temple,  December- 31st,  1845:  Pres- 
idi-nt  Young  and  myself  are  superintending  the  operations  of  the  day, 
examining  maps  with  reference  to  selecting  a  location  for  the  Saints, 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  reading  the  various  works  which 
have  been  written  and  published  by  travelers  in  those  regions." 


28      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

select  company  of  pioneers,  in  advance  of  the  main  body  of 
the  people,  across  the  Great  Plains.  They  would  have  been 
sent  that  season,  but  the  enlistment  of  the  Battalion,  with  its 
heavy  draft  upon  the  able-bodied  element  in  the  camps,  caused 
a  postponement  of  the  project  until  the  following  spring. 

Winter  Quarters. — After  the  Battalion  had  gone,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  migrating  people  were  moved  from  Council 
Bluffs  to  the  west  side  of  the  Missouri,  so  as  not  to  trespass 
upon  the  Indian  Reservation  east  of  that  river.  By  permission 
of  the  Omaha  Indians,  the  Latter-day  Saints  built  a  settlement 
named  Winter  Quarters,  on  the  site  of  the  present  town  of 
Florence,  Nebraska.  In  that  primitive  frontier  village,  and  on 
the  prairies  of  Iowa,  in  log  and  mud  huts,  in  tents  and  in  wag- 
ons, the  exiled  community  passed  the  winter  of  1846-1847.* 

Prospective  Emigration — The  Advance  Company. — As 
spring  opened,  all  was  bustle  and  stir  at  the  camps  east  and 
west  of  the  great  river  which  was  then  the  border  line  of  the 
nation.  In  January  President  Young  had  issued  instructions 
concerning  the  formation,  equipment,  and  conduct  of  the  sev- 
eral companies  that  were  to  journey  westward.  About  the  be- 
ginning of  April  he  completed  the  organization  of  the  advance 
company — the  Pioneers — whom  he  proposed  leading  in  person 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  Pioneer  company,  though  comparatively  small,  was  a 
model  for  all  succeeding  ones.  They  were  divided  into  "hun- 
dreds," the  hundreds  into  "fifties,"  and  the  fifties  into  "tens," 
with  a  captain  over  each  division.  The  male  adult  enrollment 
of  the  Pioneers  was  originally  twelve  times  twelve,  but  one 
man  became  disabled  after  the  journey  began,  and  returned, 
leaving  the  number  at  one  hundred  and  forty-three.  Three  of 
these  were  negroes,  and  at  least  two  were  non-Mormons. 

*Among  those  who  visited  Winter  Quarters  while  the  "Mormon" 
people  were  there,  was  Father  De  Smet,  a  Jesuit  missionary  among 
the  Indians.  In  a  letter  dated  March,  1851,  he  says:  "In  the  fall  of 
1846,  as  I  drew  near  the  frontiers  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  I  found 
the  advance  guard  of  the. 'Mormons,'  numbering  about  ten  thousand, 
camped  on  the  Territory  of  the  Omaha,  not  far  from  the  old  Council 
Bluffs.  They  had  just  been  driven  out  for  the  second  time  from  a  State 
of  the  Union  (Illinois  had  received  them  after  their  war  with  the  peo- 
ple of  Missouri).  They  had  resolved  to  winter  on  the  threshold  of  the 
great  desert,  and  then  to  move  onward  into  it,  to  put  distance  between 
them  and  their  persecutors,  without  even  knowing  at  that  time  the  end 
of  their  long  wanderings,  nor  the  place  where  they  should  once  more 
erect  for  themselves  permanent  dwellings.  They  asked  me  a  thousand 
questions  about  the  regions  I  had  explored.  The  valley  (Salt 

Lake),  which  1  have  just  described  to  you,  pleased  them  greatly  from 
the  account  I  gave  them  of  it." 


THE  PIONEERS.  29 

Three  women  were  added  as  nurses,  and  two  children  went 
with  their  parents.* 

Equipment  and  Discipline. — The  census  of  the  Pioneer 
camp  gave  the  following  additional  items :  Seventy-two  wag- 
ons, ninety-three  horses,  fifty-two  mules,  sixty-six  oxen,  nine- 
teen cows,  seventeen  dogs,  and  some  chickens.  The  wagons 
were  drawn  by  horses,  mules  and  oxen.  Mounted  men  were 
few.  The  Pioneers,  like  the  emigrants  who  followed  them, 
walked  most  of  the  way  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Great 
Salt  Lake,  a  distance  of  more  than  a  thousand  miles. 


They  were  well  armed,  arid  as  fully  equipped  as  mi^ht  be 
in  those  days  of  general  privation.  The  men  carried  rifles  and 
small  weapons,  and  a  cannon  was  taken  along  to  overawe  hos- 
tile Indians.  In  their  covered  wagons  were  plows  and  other 
implements,  seed  grain,  and  a  year's  supply  of  provisions.  They 
also  had  a  case  of  surveyor's  instruments,  afterwards  used  in 
laying  out  Salt  Lake  City.  One  of  the  men  invented  an 
odometer,t  to  measure  the  distance  traveled.  Farmers,  build- 

*The  three  women  were  Harriet  Page  Wheeler  Young,  wife  of 
Lorenzo  D.  Young;  Clara  Decker  Young,  wife  of  Brigham  Young;  and 
Ellen  Sanders  Kimball,  wife  of  Heber  C.  Kimball.  The  two  children 
were  Isaac  Perry  Decker  and  Lorenzo  S.  Young. 

tThe  Pioneers  called  it  a  "road-om-eter."  The  first  one — for  there 
were  two — was  a  crude  affair,  though  ingenious.  An  old  steel  saw  was 
made  to  project  from  a  wagon  box  in  such  a  way  as  to  strike  at  every 
turn  a  nail  driven  into  a  spoke  of  one  of  the  wheels.  The  circumfer- 
ence of  the  wheel,  multiplied  by  the  number  of  strikes  or  revolutions, 
registered  the  distance.  The  more  perfect  machine  was  invented  by 
William  Clayton  and  constructed  by  Appleton  M.  Harmon. 


30      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ers,  mechanics  and  laborers  were  included  in  the  organization. 
Like  Caesar's  legions  in  Gaul  and  Britain,  these  conquerors  of 
the  desert  went  prepared,  not  only  to  fight  if  necessary,  but  to 
make  roads,  build  bridges,  erect  houses,  till  the  soil,  and  do 
everything  else  needed  in  the  exploration  and  settlement  of  a 
new  country. 

Moreover,  they  had  a  military  organization.  Brigham 
Young  was  their  general;  Jesse  C.  Little,  adjutant;  Stephen 
Markham,  colonel ;  John  Pack  and  Shadrach  Roundy,  majors ; 
and  Thomas  Tanner,  captain  of  artillery.  Stephen  Markham 
and  Albert  P.  Rockwood  were  captains  of  hundreds;  and  Ad- 
dison  Everett,  Tarlton  Lewis,  and  James  Case,  captains  of 
fifties.  The  captains  of  tens  were  Wilford  Woodruff,  Ezra  T. 
Benson,  Phineas  H.  Young,  Luke  S.  Johnson,  Stephen  H.  God- 
dard,  Charles  Shumway,  James  Case,  Seth  Taft,  Howard  Egan, 
Appleton  M.  Harmon,  John  S.  Higbee,  Norton  Jacobs,  John 
Brown,  and  Joseph  Matthews.  Thomas  Bullock  was  clerk, 
and  there  were  also  historians,  such  as  Wilford  Woodruff, 
Orson  Pratt,  Willard  Richards,  Horace  K.  Whitney,  and  Wil- 
liam Clayton,  who  recorded  in  daily  journals  the  experiences 
of  the  Camp. 

The  men  were  instructed  to  travel  in  compact  form,  each 
with  loaded  gun  in  hand  or  in  wagon,  ready  for  instant  use. 
Night  and  morning,  at  the  sound  of  the  bugle,  all  were  to  as- 
semble for  prayers.  The  Sabbath  was  to  be  kept,  and  divine 
service  held  regularly.  Honesty  and  sobriety  were  strictly  en- 
joined, and  profanity  and  extreme  levity  discountenanced.  The 
Pioneers  were  not  to  kill  game  except  for  food,  nor  trespass  in 
any  manner  upon  the  rights  of  the  red  men  whose  country  they 
were  about  to  enter. 

The  Pioneer  Journey — Route  and  Method  of  Travel. — 
About  the  middle  of  April,  a  start  was  made  for  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Most  travelers  to  the  West  passed  up  the  south 
bank  of  the  Platte  River.  The  Pioneers  chose  the  north  bank 
and  broke  a  new  road,  one  subsequently  traveled  by  tens  of 
thousands  of  Latter-day  Saints.  It  became  known  as  "The 
Old  Mormon  Trail."  Much  of  it  is  now  covered  by  the  road- 
bed of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway. 

The  regular  order  of  march  was  for  each  "ten"  to  take  its 
turn  in  the  lead.  Streams  too  deep  to  ford  were  crossed  in  a 
leather  boat,  which  served  as  a  wagon  box  while  traveling. 
Rafts  were  also  used,  made  from  cotton  wood  trees  growing 
along  the  banks.  Some  of  the  streams  were  only  about  two 
feet  deep,  but  at  the  bottom  were  beds  of  quicksand,  dangerous 
to  teams,  and  almost  pulling  a  wagon  to  pieces. 

The  country  traversed,  though  monotonous,  was  pleasing 


THE  PIONEERS.  31 

to  the  eye.  Before,  behind,  and  on  either  side,  a  vast  level 
prairie,  limited  on  the  right  by  a  continuous  range  of  majestic 
bluffs,  and  on  the  left  by  the  muddy  waters  of  the  Platte,  roll- 
ing ceaselessly  over  beds  of  quicksand ;  the  river  often  hid  from 
view  by  the  many  beautiful  cottonwood  groves  fringing  its 
sandy  shores.  Everywhere  the  soil  was  of  this  texture,  prom- 
ising little  at  that  time  to  agriculture. 

Indian  Tactics — Stampede  and  Corral. — As  a  rule  the  In- 
dians— mostly  Pawnees  and  Sioux — were  friendly,  though 
some  of  them  set  fire  to  the  prairie,  burning  the  grass  needed 
by  these  travelers  as  feed  for  their  animals.  The  red  men  also 
ran  off  horses  belonging  to  the  company.  More  than  once  they 
tried  to  stampede  the  stock.  As  a  means  of  protection  at  night, 
the  wagons  were  formed  into  a  "corral,"  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  plains.  This  was  done  by  arranging  them  in  a 
circle  or  an  oval,  with  the  tongues  outside ;  a  fore  wheel  of  each 
wagon  locked  in  a  hind  wheel  of  the  one  ahead.  The  stock 
were  kept  inside  the  enclosure,  an  opening  at  either  end  being 
carefully  guarded.* 

Pawnees  and  Sioux. — The  Pawnees  swarmed  around  in 
large  numbers,  but  their  manner  was  not  hostile,  their  motive 
being  mercenary.  Presenting  certificates  signed  by  various 


*A  good  idea  of  a  stampede  is  given  in  the  following  bit  of  de- 
scription, written  by  one  of  the  early  emigrants  to  Salt  Lake  Valley: 
"At  a  very  early  hour  some  one  was  carelessly  shaking  a  big  buffalo 
robe  at  the  back  of  a  wagon,  when  a  number  of  the  cattle  in  the  corral 
took  fright  and  started  to  run;  these  frightened  others;  they  began  to 
bellow  and  all  in  a  huddle  ran  for  the  gateway  of  the  enclosure.  This 
being  too  narrow  for  the  rushing  multitude  that  thronged  into  the  pas- 
sage, they  piled  themselves  one  upon  another,  until  those  on  top  were 
above  the  tops  of  the  adjacent  wagons,  jarring  and  moving  them  from 
their  places.  The  inmates,  suddenly  roused  from  sleep,  and  not  know- 
ing the  cause  of  the  terrible  uproar  and  confusion,  were  almost  par- 
alyzed with  fear.  At  length  some  of  the  cattle  broke  from  the  enclos- 
ure, the  bellowing  subsided,  and  quiet  was  restored;  but  the  fright 
caused  considerable  suffering  to  those  whose  nerves  Were  not  equal  to 
the  strain.  In  the  stampede  two  wagon  wheels  were  crushed,  several 
oxen  had  horns  knocked  off,  and  one  cow  was  killed." 

This  stampede  resulted  from  an  accident;  but  the  Indians  resorted 
to  just  such  tricks  as  shaking  buffalo  robes  or  blankets,  to  frighten 
the  horses  and  cattle  of  passing  trains.  They  would  follow  them  for 
hundreds  of  miles,  warily  concealing  themselves  and  awaiting  opportu- 
nity to  effect  their  design.  Dark  and  rainy  nights  were  their  delight. 
Creeping  like  snakes  through  the  long, dank  grass,  and  eluding  the  eyes 
and  ears  of  the  guard,  they  would  cut  the  lariats  of  the  horses,  if  staked 
outside,  and  scare  and  scatter  them  in  all  directions.  Sometimes  they 
frightened  them  by  shaking  pieces  of  dry  rawhide,  which  rattled  omin- 
ously, and  by  hissing  in  imitation  of  a  rattlesnake.  When  the  trains 
had  passed,  if  pass  they  could  after  losing  much  of  their  stock,  these 
cunning  prowlers  of  the  plains  would  hunt  and  capture  the  missing  ani- 
mals at  leisure. 


32      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

travelers,  to  the  effect  that  these  Indians  were  friendly,  and 
that  it  was  customary  to  give  them  small  presents  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  passing  through  their  country,  they  intimated  that 
gifts  from  this  company  would  be  acceptable'  A  few  articles, 
such  as  powder,  lead,  salt  and  flour  were  bestowed,  and  with 
these  the  red  men  departed. 

Near  Chimney  Rock  a  band  of  mounted  Sioux  forded  the 
river  and  made  friendly  advances.  These  Indians  were  much 
better  accoutred  than  those  nearer  the  frontier.  Many  of  them 
wore  "broadcloth,"  with  fur  caps,  profusely  decorated  with 
beads  and  other  ornaments.  They  had  bows,  steel-pointed  ar- 
rows, and  firearms,  and  carried  an  American  flag,  with  a1  rec- 
ommendation, written  in  French,  from  an  agent  of  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company.  The  Pioneers  granted  the  request  of  the 
chief  to  remain  with  them  over  night,  and  spread  a  tent  for  his 
accommodation.  They  also  fed  him  and  his  band,  thirty-five 
in  number,  that  night  and  the  next  morning. 

Hunting  the  Bison — Primitive  Mail  Boxes. — At  Grand 
Island  the  prairie  was  alive  with  herds  of  bison,  commonly 
called  buffalo.  The  Pioneers  indulged  in  a  hunt,  twelve  men 
on  horseback,  with  twelve  on  foot,  being  assigned  the  duty  of 
providing  meat  for  the  company.  Most  of  them  had  never  seen 
a  bison  before,  and  some  were  simple  enough  to  try  to  kill  one 
by  shooting  him  in  the  forehead,  where  the  hair  and  skull  were 
so  thick  that  the  bullets  rebounded  without  having  made  the 
least  impression.*  Ten  of  the  animals,  pierced  in  more  vul- 
nerable spots,  were  killed  and  the  meat  distributed.  Game  con- 
tinued plentiful,  the  hunters  supplying  the  camp  with  buffalo, 
deer,  antelope,  geese  and  ducks,  whenever  necessary.  A  griz- 
zly bear  and  her  cubs  also  became  trophies  of  their  skill.  As 
they  approached  the  Mountains,  fine  trout  began  to  be  taken 
from  the  streams. 

*President  Joseph  F.  Smith  relates  a  similar  incident  that  came 
under  his  personal  observation,  when,  as  a  boy  of  ten  years,  he  crossed 
the  plains,  coming  to  Salt  Lake  Valley.  While  the  company  in  which 
he  traveled  was  encamped  on  the  North  Platte,  an  old  bison,  driven 
out  of  his  native  herd  by  the  younger  male  members,  strayed  down  to 
the  river  to  drink.  Fired  upon  by  hunters  in  ambush,  he  plunged 
furiously  into  the  stream,  where  after  receiving  another  broadside,  he 
whirled  about  and  returned  to  the  bank.  A  third  volley  brought  him 
to  his  knees  in  a  dying  condition,  all  the  bullets  having  entered  his 
body.  The  captain  of  the  company  came  up  to  give  the  coup  de  grace, 
which  he  supposed  could  be  done  by  discharging  the  contents  of  his 
Yauger  rifle  full  at  the  animal's  forehead.  The  shot  struck,  but  the 
bison  did  not  bat  an  eye.  After  he  was  dead  the  slugs  from  the  Yauger 
were  found  in  a  coarse  mat  of  hair  covering  the  front  of  the  skull,  not 
having  touched  the  bone.  The  hide  there  was  an  inch  thick.  A  fa- 
vorite Indian  method  of  killing  buffalo  was  to  ride  alongside  and  strike 
one  with  a.n  arrow  in  the  lower  part  of  the  spine,  thus  paralyzing  the 
beast. 


THE  PIONEERS.  33 

Now  and  then  the  bleached  skull  of  a  bison,  a  hollow  tree, 
or  a  sheltering  rock  at  the  roadside,  served  as  a  mail  box,  in 
which  to  deposit  letters  for  friends  who  were  following.  One 
day  a  French  trader,  returning  to  the  frontier  with  furs  from 
Fort  Laramie,  visited  the  camp,  fording  the  Platte  for  that  pur- 
pose, but  leaving  his  wagons  on  the  south  bank.  He  gave  the 
name  of  Charles  Beaumont,  and  courteously  undertook  to  de- 
liver at  Winter  Quarters  any  messages  entrusted  to  his  care. 

Crossing  the  Platte. — At  Fort  Laramie  the  river  was 
crossed  on  a  ferry  boat,  hired  from  a  Frenchman  in  charge  of 
the  post.  For  this  accommodation  the  Pioneers  paid  fifteen 
dollars.  The  fort  was  then  a  station  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, whose  agent,  James  Bordeaux,  received  President  Young 
and  his  party  very  politely,  and  gave  them  considerable  infor- 
mation regarding  the  route  ahead.  The  Crow  Indians  were 
troublesome,  he  said,  having  lately  run  off  all  his  horses  and 
mules.  The  south  side  of  the  river  was  now  chosen,  owing  to 
a  report  that  the  north  side  was  no  longer  practicable. 

Mississippi  Emigrants. — While  at  Laramie,  the  Pioneer: 
were  joined  by  seventeen  emigrants  from  Mississippi,  part  of  a 
small  company  of  Latter-day  Saints  who  had  wintered  at  Pu- 
eblo. At  that  place,  it  will  be  remembered,  a  detachment  of 
the  Mormon  Battalion,  under  Captains  Brown  and  Higgins, 
had  been  quartered.  Four  of  the  Pioneers,  Amasa  M.  Lyman, 
Thomas  Woolsey,  John  H.  Tippitts,  and  Roswell  Stevens, 
were  sent  horseback  to  Pueblo,  to  take  charge  of  the  main 
body  of  the  Mississippians  and  conduct  them  to  Salt  Lake  Val- 
ley. All  but  three  of  the  seventeen  emigrants  were  members 
of  the  Crow  and  Therlkill  families,  the  others  being  Archibald 
Little,  James  Chesney,  and  Lewis  B.  Myers. 

A  Ferry  Established — Missourians  for  Oregon. — In  the 

region  of  the  Black  Hills  the  Pioneers  built  rafts  and  con- 
structed a  ferry,  helping  over  the  river  at  that  point  several 
companies  of  Missourians,  bound  for  Oregon.  They  received 
for  this  service  a  dollar  and  a  half  for  each  wagon  and  load, 
and  were  paid  in  flour,  meal,  and  bacon,  at  eastern  prices.  Nine 
men  were  detailed  to  maintain  the  ferry  for  the  benefit  of  the 
coming  emigration.  They  were  Thomas  Grover,  John  S.  Hig- 
bee,  Luke  S.  Johnson,  Appleton  M.  Harmon,  Edmund  Ells- 
worth, Francis  M.  Pomeroy,  William  Empey,  James  Daven- 
port, and  Benjamin  F.  Stewart.  The  main  company,  fording 
the  Sweetwater,  found  good  grass  along  that  stream,  but  had 
to  beware  of  the  poisonous  alkali  water  lying  about  in  pools. 
Drinking  of  these  waters  killed  many  horses  and  cattle  of  suc- 
ceeding companies.  While  resting  on  the  Sabbath,  the  Pio- 
neers were  continually  overtaken  and  passed  by  west-bound 


34      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

emigrants.  More  than  once  they  met  wagons  from  Fort 
Bridger,  laden  with  furs  for  Fort  Laramie. 

Over  "The  Great  Divide."— Late  in  June  they  reached 
South  Pass,  and  began  the  western  descent  of  the  Rockies.  In 
that  vicinity  they  encountered  Major  Moses  Harris,  scout  and 
trapper,  who  was  guiding  a  company  of  emigrants  to  Oregon ; 
also  Thomas  L.  Smith,  a  mountaineer  living,  near  Soda 
Springs.  Major  Harris,  learning  that  the  Pioneers  were  bound 
for  Great  Salt  Lake  Valley,  gave  a  discouraging  report  of  this 
region,  but  spoke  favorably  of  Cache  Valley— so  named  be- 
cause hunters  and  trappers  "cached"  their  furs  and  effects 
there.  Harris  had  a  file  of  Oregon  papers,  also  several  copies 
of  "The  California  Star,"  the  journal  published  by  Samuel 
Brannan  at  Yerba  Buena. 

Brigham  Young  and  Colonel  Bridger. — East  of  Little 
Sandy  the  California  and  Oregon  roads  diverged.  After  pass- 
ing that  stream  the  Pioneers  made  the  acquaintance  of  Colonel 
Bridger,  builder  and  part  proprietor  of  the  fort  bearing  his 
name.  He  camped  with  them  on  the  night  of  the  twentieth 
of  June.  They  found  him  an  erratic  though  interesting  char- 
acter, full  of  information  and  a  desire  to  impart  it.  In  conver- 
sation with  President  Young,  Colonel  Bridger  expressed  the 
opinion  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  bring  a  large  colony  into 
the  Great  Basin  until  it  had  been  demonstrated  that 'grain 
could  be  raised  here.  He  declared  that  he  would  give  a  thou- 
sand dollars  if  he  knew  an  ear  of  corn  could  ripen  in  Salt  Lake 
Valley.  How  much  of  this  advice  was  philanthropic,  and  what 
part  of  it  the  result  of  a  fear  that  a  settlement  in  the  Valley 
would  injure  the  trapping  industry,  is  problematical  at  the 
present  time. 

Brannan  from  the  Coast. — Just  before  the  Pioneers  crossed 
Green  River,  Samuel  Brannan  rode  into  camp,  having  come  di- 
rectly from  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  He,  with  two  companions, 
had  crossed  the  Sierra  Nevada  at  Truckee  Pass.  Brannan's  pur- 
pose in  coming  was  to  persuade  President  Young  to  pass  by  the 
barren,  forbidding  region  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  join  him 
and  his  colony  on  the  fertile  slopes  of  the  Pacific.  He  brought 
with  him  sixteen  numbers  of  "The  California  Star,"  and  the  lat- 
est news  from  the  Battalion.  He  used  every  endeavor  to  con- 
vince the  President  that  it  would  be  to  the  advantage  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  to  establish  themselves  on  the  western 
coast;  but  in  this  he  was  unsuccessful.  The  prospect  painted 
by  his  eloquence,  though  it  had  some  pleasing  features,  was 
not  alluring  to  the  sagacious  leader,  who  had  seen  his  people 
despoiled  and  driven  repeatedly,  through  sheer  inability  to 
hold  their  own  against  overwhelming  odds  hostile  to,  and  ar- 
rayed against  them.  Until  they  became  strong  enough,  not 


THE  PIONEERS.  35 

only  in  numbers  but  in  influence,  to  defend  themselves  against 
such  aggressions,  it  was  better  for  them  to  seek  isolation  and 
brave  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  the  desert. 

Green  River,  rapid  and  swollen,  was  crossed  with  rafts. 
The  4th  of  July  falling  on  Sunday,  the  Pioneers  sacredly  ob- 
served the  glorious  anniversary.  Three  days  later,  they  ar- 
rived at  Fort  Bridger. 

Fort  Bridger. — This  famous  trading  station  was  little 
more  than  a  double  log  house,  surrounded  by  posts  set  upright 
in  the  ground,  forming  a  stockade  about  eight  feet  high.  The 
fort  was  built  upon  one  of  several  small  islands,  created  by 
various  branches  of  Black's  Fork,  a  tributary  of  Green  River. 
It  was  the  abode  of  a  score  or  more  of  human  beings,  white 
men,  Indian  women,  and  half-breed  children.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood were  nine  Indian  lodges,  where  dwelt  the  families  of 
other  mountaineers  who  had  also  taken  squaws  for  wives.  Cer- 
tain lands  in  the  vicinity  were  held  by  Bridger  and  his  partner, 
Mr.  Vasquez,  under  a  grant  from  the  Government  of  Mexico. 

President  Young  111 — Pratt's  Vanguard. — The  Pioneers, 
having  shod  their  horses  and  repaired  their  wagons,  prepara- 
tory to  the  rough  mountainous  journey  before  them,  left  Fort 
Bridger  on  the  ninth  of  July.  At  noon  of  the  twelfth,  Presi- 
dent Young  took  mountain  fever,  which  had  first  attacked  the 
camp  on  Green  River.  Falling  behind  with  a  few  wagons,  he 
requested  the  main  body  to  move  on. 

Next  day  Orson  Pratt  was  directed  by  the  President  to 
take  wagons  and  men  and  proceed  down  Echo  Canyon,  at  the 
mouth  of  which  he  was  to  look  for  the  Reed-Donner  trail  and 
follow  it  over  the  mountains  into  Salt  Lake  Valley.  The  We- 
ber Canyon  route  had  been  reported  impassable,  owing  to  high 
water. 

Pratt's  vanguard  found  and  pursued  the  trail;  a  dozen 
men,  with  spades  and  axes,  going  before  the  wagons,  smooth- 
ing or  constructing  the  way.  In  traveling  eight  miles  up  East 
Canyon,  they  crossed  its  crooked,  willow-fringed  torrent  thir- 
teen times.  Huge  gray  wolves,  startled  out  of  their  lairs, 
glared  fiercely  at  them  and  sullenly  retired  up  neighboring 
glens  and  ravines.  The  deadly  rattlesnake — policeman  among 
reptiles — sounded  its  warning,  as  if  summoning  assistance  to 
arrest  the  progress  of  these  daring  and  dangerous  human  in- 
truders. Here  and  there  the  fresh  track  of  a  buffalo  appeared ; 
the  brush  at  the  roadside,  against  which  the  brute  had  rubbed 
in  passing,  retaining  some  of  its  hair. 

First  Glimpse  of  "The  Valley"— Word  from  the  Rear.— 
Leaving  East  Canyon,  the  trail  turned  up  a  ravine  to  the  west, 
and  crossed  another  ridge  or  summit — Big  Mountain.  Hith- 
erto a  continuous  succession  of  hills  on  hills  had  greeted  the 


36      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

tired  vision  of  the  toiling  vanguard,  pushing  through  these 
mountain  fastnesses.  But  now  a  broader  view  was  obtained ; 
glimpses  of  the  open  country  appeared.  To  the  southwest, 
through  a  sloping  vista,  two  small  sections  of  Salt  Lake  Valley 
were  visible.  The  Lak?  was  as  yet  unseen,  but  beyond,  in  the 
blue  distance,  loomed  t.'ie  Oquirrh  range  and  the  shadowy  par- 
allel of  a  still  more  ren.ote  line  of  hills.  It  was  on  the  19th  of 
July,  from  the  crest  of  Big  Mountain,  that  Orson  Pratt  and 
John  Brown,  riding  al  .ead  of  their  company,  caught  the  first 
glimpse  of  the  Valley  ,of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  Descending  a 
steep  and  dangerous  slide,  where  wheels  had  to  be  double- 
locked,  the  trail  rose  abruptly  over  another  high  hill — Little 
Mountain — whence  it  descended  into  Emigration  Canyon.  On 
the  twenty-first,  one  mile  below  Little  Mountain,  the  van- 
guard was  overtaken  by  a  messenger  from  the  rear.  This  mes- 
senger, Erastus  Snow,  stated  that  President  Young  desired 
those  who  were  leading  the  way  to  bear  to  the  northward  and 
stop  at  the  first  convenient  place  for  plowing  and  planting. 

In  the  afternoon  of  that  day  Orson  Pratt  and  Erastus 
Snow  preceded  the  company  down  the  canyon,  the  mouth  of 
which  they  found  choked  with  boulders,  timber  and  brush. 
Crossing  to  the  south  side  of  the  creek,  the  two  Pioneers  as- 
cended a  hill,  and  saw  for  the  first  time  the  broad,  open  Valley, 
belted  with  snow-capped  peaks,  and  the  blue  waters  of  the 
Lake  flashing  in  the  sunlight.  A  shout  of  rapture  broke  from 
their  lips,  and  they  descended  to  the  benchland  below. 

"The  Right  Place." — President  Young,  reclining  in  a  light 
carriage  driven  by  Wilford  Woodruff,  crossed  Big  Mountain 
on  the  twenty-third  of  July.  Halting  on  the  summit,  he  gazed 
long  and  earnestly  at  those  parts  of  Salt  Lake  Valley  that  are 
visible  from  that  eminence.  Next  day  his  wagons  rolled 
through  the  mouth  of  Emigration  Canyon,  and  the  founder  of 
Utah  was'  upon  the  scene  of  his  future  toils.  "It  is  the  right 
-Mace,"  he  is  reputed  to  have  said,  as  his  soul  drank  in  the 
•Tospect. 


V. 


THE  SHORES  dF  THE  INLAND  SEA 

1847. 

As  Seen  by  the  Pioneers. — It  was  no  Garden  of  the  Hes- 
perides  upon  which  the  Pioneers  gazed  that  memorable  July 
morning.  Aside  from  its  scenic  splendor,  which  was  indeed 
glorious,  magnificent,  there  was  little  to  invite,  and  much  to 
repel,  in  the  prospect  presented  to  their  view.  A  barren  plain, 
hemmed  in  by  mountains,  burning  beneath  the  rays  of  the  mid- 

summer  sun. 
No  waving 
fields  or  for- 
ests, no  ver- 
dant meadows 
to  rest  and  re- 
fresh  the 
weary  eye,  but 
on  all  sides  a 
seemingly  in- 
terminable 
waste  of  sage- 
brush, bespan- 
gled with  sun- 
flowers, the 
paradise  of  the  lizard,  the  cricket,  and  the  rattlesnake. 

Less  than  half  way  across  the  baked  and  burning  valley, 
dividing  it  in  twain,  as  if  the  vast  bowl,  in  the  intense  heat  of 
the  Master  Potter's  fires,  in  process  of  formation  had  cracked 
asunder,  a  narrow  river,  turbid  and  shallow,  from  south  to 
north,  in  many  a  serpentine  curve,  sweeps  on  its  sinuous  way. 
Beyond,  a  broad  lake,  the  river's  goal,  dotted  with  towering 
islands,  its  briny  waters  shimmering  in  the  sunbeams. 

From  mountains  snow-capped,  seamed  and  craggy,  lifting 
their  kingly  heads  to  be  crowned  by  the  golden  sun,  flow 
limpid,  laughing  streams,  cold  and  crystal  clear,  leaping,  dash- 
ing, foaming,  flashing  from  rock  to  glen,  from  peak  to  plain. 
But  the  fresh  canyon  brooks  are  far  and  few,  and  the  arid 
waste  they  water,  glistening  with  beds  of  salt  and  soda  and  pools 
of  deadly  alkali,  scarcely  allows  them  to  reach  the  river,  but  mid- 
way well  nigh  swallows  and  absorbs  them  in  its  thirsty  sands. 
Above  the  line  of  gray  and  gold,  of  sage  and  sunflower,  the 
sloping  .hillsides  and  precipitous  steeps  are  clothed  with  purple 
and  dark  green  patches;  these,  the  oak-bush,  the  squaw-berry, 


SALT  LAKE  VALLEY  IN  1847 


38      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


and  other  scant  growths,  with  here  and  there  a  solitary  tree,  a 
few  acres  of  withered  bunch  grass,  and  the  lazily  waving  wil- 
lows and  wild-rose  bushes  fringing  the  distant  streams,  the 
only  green  things  visible. 

Silence  and  desolation — a  silence  unbroken  save  by  the 
cricket's  ceaseless  chirp,  the  dull  roar  of  the  tumbling  torrent, 
or  the  whirr  and  twitter  of  the  passing  bird ;  a  desolation  of 
centuries,  where  earth  seems  heaven-forsaken,  where  hermit 
Nature,  watching,  waiting,  weeps,  and  worships  God  amid 
eternal  solitudes. 

Origin  of  Pioneer  Day. — It  was  Saturday,  July  24th,  when 
Brigham  Young  entered  Salt  Lake  Valley,  giving  to  an  already 
illustrious  month  another  notable  anniversary,  thenceforth  to 
be  celebrated  as  Pioneer  Day  by  the  founders  of  Utah  and  their 
descendants.  Wilford  Woodruff,  who  halted  with  the  Pres- 
ident upon  the  foot-hills  a  little  south  of  where  Fort  Douglas 
now  stands,  says  in  his  journal :  "President  Young  expressed 
his  entire  satisfaction  at  the  appearance  of  the  Valley,  *  *  * 
and  felt  amply  repaid  for  his  journey.  *  *  *  After  gazing 
a  while  *  *  *  we  moved  four  miles  across  the  tableland 
into  the  valley,  to  the  encampment  of  our  brethren  who  had 
arrived  two  days  before  us.  They  had  pitched  upon  the  banks 
of  two  small  streams  of  pure  water,  and  had  commenced  plow- 
ing. On  our  arrival  they  had 
already  broken  five  acres  of 
land,  and  had  begun  to  plant 
potatoes  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake." 

First  Upon  the  Ground. 
—Orson  Pratt  and  Erastus 
Snow  had  entered  the  Valley 
three  days  before.  Upon 
emerging  from  Emigration 
Canyon,  they  had  first  di- 
rected their  course  south- 
ward, where  tall  canes  along 
the  banks  of  Mill  Creek 
"looked  like  inviting  grain." 
Disappointed  by  the  illusion, 
and  remembering  President 
Young's  advice  to  "bear  to 
the  northward,"  they  next 
turned  in  that  direction.  It 
is  claimed  for  Orson  Pratt 
ORSON  PRATT  that  he  was  the  first  of  the 

Pioneers  to  tread  the  site  of  Salt  Lake  City.    He  and  his  com- 
panion, it  is  said,  had  with  them  a  single  saddle  horse,  which 


THE  SHORES  OE  THE  INLAND  SEA.  39 

they  were  riding  by  turns.  It  is  traditional  in  the  Pratt  family 
that  Erastus  Snow,  while 
mounted,  missed  his  coat, 
which  he  had  taken  off  and 
flung  loosely  over  the  saddle. 
He  rode  back  to 'look  for  it, 
and  Mr.  Pratt  walked  on 
alone  to  the  banks  of  City 
Creek.  Erastus  Snow's  jour- 
nal makes  no  mention  of  this 
incident. 

Having  rejoined  his  di- 
vision in  the  canyon,  Orson 
Pratt,  on  the. 22nd  of  July, 
led  them  into  the  Valley.  He. 
was  immediately  followed 
by  George  A.  Smith  and 
Willard  Richards,  with  the 
main  body.  President  Young 
and  Heber  C.  Kimball  were 
with  the  rear  wagons.  Pratt, 
Smith  and  others  had  partly 
explored  the  Valley  before 
the  President  arrived.  They 
found  the  soil  in  places  excellent,  but  in  other  parts  unfit  for 
agriculture.  The  drier  portions  swarmed  with  crickets, 
"about  the  size  of  a  man's  thumb." 

Divergent  Views. — Some  of  the  Pioneers  waxed  eloquent 
over  the  sublime  scenery  surrounding  them,  but  their  enthusi- 
asm was  not  shared  by  all  their  companions.  The  hearts  of 
many  sank  within  them  when  they  were  told  that  this  was  to 
be  their  permanent  place  of  abode.  Harriet  Young,  one  of  the 
three  women  who  had  journeyed  from  Winter  Quarters,  ut- 
tered this  plaint :  "Weak  and  weary  as  I  am,  I  would  rather 
go  a  thousand  miles  farther  than  remain  in  such  a  desolate 
place."  Mrs.  Kimball  felt  the  same.  Clara  D.  Young,  on  the 
other  hand,  expressed  herself  as  satisfied  with  the  situation. 
Their  divergent  views  were  those  of  the  company  in  general. 
All,  however,  accepted  reverently  the  statement  of  their  leader, 
that  before  entering  Salt  Lake  Valley  he  had  beheld  it  in  vision, 
and  had  seen  a  tent  settling  down  from  heaven  and  resting  upon 
this  spot,  while  a  voice  proclaimed :  "This  is  the  place  where 
my  people  Israel  shall  pitch  their  tents."* 

*See  Discourse  by  Erastus  Snow,  delivered  in  the  Tabernacle,  Salt 
Lake  City,  July  25,  1880 ;  reproduced  in  the  "Improvement  Era,"  June,  1913. 

Wilford  Woodruff  says  of  President  Young:  "While  lying  upon 
his  bed  in  my  carriage,  gazing  upon  the  scene  before  us,  many  things 
of  the  future,  concerning  the  Valley,  were  shown  to  him  in  vision." 


ERASTUS  SNOW. 


40      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

First  Plowing  and  Planting — Beginnings  of  Irrigation.— 
The  Pioneers  corraled  their  wagons  a  little  way  below  the  can- 
yon now  known  as  City  Creek.  The  stream  issuing  from  it 
then  divided,  a  short  distance  from  the  mouth,  into  two 
branches,  one  flowing  west,  the  other  south.  The  first  camp 
was  where  Washington  Square  was  afterwards  laid  out — the 
present  site  of  the  Salt  Lake  City  and  County  Building.  Plow- 
ing and  planting  began  within  an  area  now  between  that  edifice 
and  the  junction  of  Main  and  First  South  Streets,  George  W. 
Brown,  William  Carter  and  Shadrach  Roundy  turned  the  first 
furrows.  It  was  difficult  work,  and  more  than  one  plowshare 
was  broken  in  the  hard,  sun-baked  soil. 

To  make  the  plowing  easier,  the  ground  was  flooded,  dams 
being  placed  in  the  creek  for  that  purpose.  This  was  the  be- 
ginning of  irrigation  in  arid  America  by  men  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  They  planted  potatoes,  corn,  oats,  buckwheat, 
peas,  beans,  and  other  garden  seeds.  The  "plows  began  work- 
ing during xthe  forenoon  of  July  23rd,  and  the  first  seeds  were 
put  in  on  the  morning  of  the  24th. 

Pioneer  Sabbath  Observance. — Next  day  was  the  Sabbath, 
and  the  grateful  Pioneers  did  not  fail  to  observe  it.  Assem- 
bling in  the  circle  of  their  encampment,  they  gave  thanks  to 
God  for  bringing  them  safe  to  a  land  of  peace  and  promise. 
Despite  its  desolation,  this  barren  region  was  preferable  for 
their  purposes  to  the  fertile  and  flowery  slopes  farther  on. 
Here  they  were  sure  of  the  rest  and  quiet  that  they  craved, 
but  could  not  have  found  on  the  western  coast,  which  was  fast 
filling  up  with  immigrants  from  those  very  States  where  the 
"Mormon"  people  had  experienced  their  sorest  troubles. 

The  principal  discourse,  that  Sabbath  day,  was  by  Elder 
Orson  Pratt,  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve,  who  took  for  his 
text  Isaiah  52  :7,  8 :  "How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are 
the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  tidings."  The  speaker  de- 
clared that  these  inspired  words,  with  many  other  predictions 
of  the  ancient  seers,  bore  directly  upon  the  situation  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  who  were  now  beginning  to  establish  them- 
selves "in  the  midst  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,"  as  their  mar- 
tyred Prophet  had  foretold. 

President  Young's  Instructions. — President  Young,  though 
his  enfeebled  condition  would  not  permit  him  to  preach  a  ser- 
mon, added  a  few  practical  words,  sitting  in  his  arm-chair 
while  he  addressed  his  fellow  Pioneers.  "He  told  them,"  says 
Wilford  Woodruff,  "that  they  must  not  work  on  Sunday ;  that 
they  would  lose  five  times  as  much  as  they  would  gain  by  it. 
None  were  to  hunt  or  fish  on  that  day,  and  there  should  not 
any  man  dwell  among  us  who  would  not  observe  these  rules." 
Jhere  was  to  be  no  buying  or  selling  of  land.  "Every  man 


THE  SHORES  OF  THE  INLAND  SEA.  41 

should  have  his  land  measured  out  to  him  for  city  and  farm- 
ing- purposes.  He  might  till  it  as  he  pleased,  but  he  must  be 
industrious  and  take  care  of  it."*' 

The  Valley  Explored—A  City  Projected.— The  Pioneer 
Sabbath  having  been  duly  observed,  the  next  care  of  the  col- 
onists was  to  explore  their  surroundings.  Three  parties  were 
organized  for  that  purpose,  President  Young  heading  one  of 
them.  He  left  camp  Monday  morning  and  returned  late  in 
the  afternoon.  While  ascending,  to  the  northward,  a  high  hill, 
he  remarked  concerning  it,  "A  good  place  to  lift  up  an  ensign,'"' 
referring  to  another  prediction  of  Isaiah's  (11:12).  As  if  to 
fulfill  prophecy  while  expressing  patriotism,  the  Pioneers  after- 
wards raised  the  Stars  and  Stripes  on  that  hill,  which  Brigham 
Young  named  "Ensign  Peak."  He  and  his  party  also  visited 
the  Warm  Springs,  then  bubbling  forth  in  a  natural  basin  at 
the  foot  of  a  rugged  spur  of  the  Wasatch  range. 

Passing  Jordan  River,  which  was  then  called  "The  Utah 
Outlet,"  the  President  and  those  with  him  next  visited  the 
Great  Salt  Lake,  and  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  a  bath  in  its  briny 
waters,  the  wonderful  properties  of  which  much  impressed 
them.  After  partly  exploring  Tooele  Valley,  they  traveled 
southward  for  about  ten  miles  along  the  eastern  base  of  the 
Oquirrh  Mountains,  turned  eastward,  recrossed  Salt  Lake  Val- 
ley, and  came  again  to  the  banks  of  City  Creek.  That  eve- 
ning— July  28th — they  decided  to  build  a  city,  beginning  at 
what  is  now  Temple  Block. 

*These  instructions  were  reminiscent  of  the  early  experience  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  under  a  social  order  introduced  by  their  first  leader, 
Joseph  Smith.  The  proposed  measuring  out  to  each  householder  of  a 
portion  of  land,  which  he  would  be  required  to  industriously  cultivate, 
was  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  "The  United  Order,"  instituted  at 
Kirtland,  Ohio,  and  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri.  Under  the  opera- 
tions of  that  Order,  the  members  of  the  Church  were  to  consecrate  all 
their  properties  for  "the  building  up  of  Zion,"  receiving  in  return  indi- 
vidual stewardships,  to  be  managed  and  conducted  for  the  general  wel- 
fare; all  gains  reverting  to  a  common  fund,  from  which  every  steward 
would  derive  his  or  her  support.  "Every  man  seeking  the  interest  of 
his  neighbor,  and  doing  all  things  with  an  eye  single  to  the  glory  of 
-God."  This  was  the  key-note  of  the  United  Order. 

Joseph  Smith's  concept  of  a  community,  while  subsequent  in  enunci- 
ation to  the  theories  of  Robert  Owen  and  the  French  socialists,  was 
not  inspired  by  modern  socialism  and  its  methods.  His  ideals  were 
ancient  and  biblical,  not  modern  and  secular;  they  were  of  Moses  and 
Joshua,  rather  than  of  Owen  and  Saint  Simon.  He  declared  that  God 
had  given  him  a  commission  to  gather  scattered  Israel  and  begin  a 
work  that  would  eventuate  in  the  establishment  of  the  New  Jerusalem 
and  the  preparation  of  a  people  for  the  glorious  coming  of  the  Lord. 
This  is  the  real  significance  of  "Mormon"  proselyting  and  emigrational 
activities, — in  fact  of  all  authorized  movements  by  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 


42      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Next  Arrivals. — A  Bowery  Built. — The  first  to  follow  the 
Pioneers  to  the  shores  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  was  the  Pueblo 
detachment  of  the  Mormon  Battalion,  which  arrived  on  the 
29th  of  July,  bringing  the  main  body  of  the  Mississippi  emi- 
grants. The  soldiers  numbered  over  one  hundred,  and  the 
emigrants  about  the  same.  Captain  James  Brown  was  in  com- 
mand. It  had  been  his  intention,  on  leaving  Pueblo,  to  march 
his  men  to  California,  but  their  term  of  enlistment  having  ex- 
pired, he  determined  to  tarry  here  and  await  further-  orders. 

These  Battalion  men  built  the  first  structure  in  the  Valley. 
It  was  a  bowery  in  which  to  hold  public  meetings.  Posts  were 
set  in  the  ground,  and  upon  these  long  poles  were  laid,  fas- 
tened with  wooden  pegs  and  strips  of  rawhide.  This  frame- 
work, which  was  covered  with  timbers  and  brush,  made  a  good 
shelter  from  the  sun,  but  afforded  little  protection  against 
wind  and  rain.* 

The  "Old  Fort"  Begun. — As  a  protection  against  hostile 
:.nd  thieving  savages,  the  Pioneers  decided  to  build  a  fort,  and 
preliminary  to  that  end  the  wagons  were  formed  into  an  ob- 
long corral  between  the  two  branches  of  City  Creek.  The 
Indians,  some  of  whom  had  stolen  guns  and  other  articles  from 
the  camp,  were  not  permitted  inside  this  enclosure.  Work 
upon  the  fort  began  on  the  tenth  of  August,  prior  to  which 
date  logs  were  hauled  from  the  canyon,  adobes  made,  and 
mounds  prepared,  for  the  proposed  structure. 

Captain  Brown  to  the  Coast. — Early  that  month,  Captain 
Brown  set  out  for  the  Pacific  Coast,  taking  with  him  power  of 
attorney  from  his  men  to  draw  the  pay  due  them  from  the 
Government.  The  small  party  accompanying  him  included 
Samuel  Brannan,  who  returned  crestfallen,  after  failing  to  con- 
vince President  Young  that  the  coast  region  was  a  more  de- 
sirable place  for  the  Latter-day  Saints  than  the  isolated,  moun- 
tain-girt valleys  of  the  Great  American  Desert.  The  west- 
bound travelers  followed  "The  Northern  Route."  Captain 


*The  day  the  bowery  was  built  two  small  bands  of  Indians,  Utes 
and  Shoshones,  were  trading  at  the  camps  on  City  Creek.  A  young 
Ute  stole  a  horse  from  the  Shoshones  and  traded  it  to  one  of  the  set- 
tlers for  a  rifle.  When  detected,  he  refused  to  give  up  the  gun,  and  a 
fight  ensued  between  him  and  a  Shoshone  youth.  They  were  finally 
separated,  but  not  until  the  father  of  one  of  them  had  lashed  both  the 
young  fellows  with  a  heavy  thong  of  rawhide.  The  Ute  then  tried  to 
steal  another  horse  belonging  to  the  Shoshones,  but  while  driving  the 
animal  toward  the  mountains  he  was  pursued  by  four  of  the  band  and 
shot  dead.  The  two  tribes  had  long  been  at  enmity,  but  now  there  was 
additional  bad  blood  between  them,  caused  by  the  coming  of  the  Utes 
to  trade  with  the  settlers.  The  Shoshones  claimed  Salt  Lake  Valley 
and  the  country  horth,  while  the  Utes  held  Utah  Valley  and  the  region 
south.  It  angered  the  Shoshones  to  find  any  of  the  settlers  trading 
with  the  Utes. 


THE  SHORES  OF  THE  INLAND  SEA.  43 

Brown  conveyed  to  the  discharged  Battalion  men,  such  as  had 
not  re-enlisted,  an  epistle  from  President  Young  and  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Twelve,  to  the  effect  that  those  who  were  without 
families  should  remain  on  the  coast,  work  through  the  winter, 
and  come  on  to  Salt  Lake  Valley  with  their  earnings  in  the 
spring. 

First  Birth  and  Death  in  the  Colony. — The  first  birth  in 
the  Pioneer  Colony  was  a  girl,  the  daughter  of  John  and  Cath- 
erine Campbell  Steele.  The  father  was  a  Battalion  man.  The 
child  was  born  on  the  9th  of  August,  1847,  and  was  named 
Young  Elizabeth  Steele,  "in  honor  of  President  Young  and 
Queen  Elizabeth."  She  lived  to  become,  by  marriage,  Mrs. 
James  Stapley,  of  Kanarra,  Kane  County,  Utah.  The  first 
death  occurred  two  days  after  this  initial  birth,  the  victim 
being  Milton  H.  Therlkill,  a  three-year-old  son  of  George  and 
Jane  Therlkill,  of  the  Mississippi  emigrants.  Wandering  from 
camp,  the  little  one  fell  into  City  Creek  and  was  drowned. 

Back  to  the  Missouri — Immigration  of  1847. — President 
Young,  after  superintending  the  erection  of  the  fort,  and  giv- 
ing final  instructions  to  those  who  were  to  spend  the  winter 
in  the  mountains,  set  out  for  the  Missouri  River,  there  to  or- 
ganize the  next  season's  emigration.  His  departure  from  Salt 
Lake  Valley,  late  in  August,  took  over  one  hundred  men  from 
the  colony,  but  their  places  were  more  than  supplied  by  the 
immigrants  who  began  to  arrive  during  the  latter  part  of  Sep- 
tember. These  traveled  in  four  large  companies,  aggregating 
fifteen  hundred  men,  women,  and  children,  with  five  hundred 
and  sixty  wagons  and  five  thousand  head  of  stock.  President 
Young  met  these  emigrants  on  the  plains.* 

Incidents  of  the  Return  Journey. — The  President's  return 
journey  was  not  without  other  lively  incidents.  Early  one 

*The  four  companies  were  commanded  respectively  by  Daniel 
Spencer,  Edward  Hunter,  Jedediah  M.  Grant,  and  Abraham  O.  Smoot; 
with  John  Taylor,  Parley  P.  Pratt,  and  John  Young  in  general  charge. 
There  were  also  an  artillery  company,  under  General  Charles  C.  Rich, 
several  pieces  of  cannon  being  brought  in  this  immigration.  It  had 
been,  organized  on  the  frontier  by  Patriarch  Isaac  Morley  and  Bishop 
Newel  K.  Whitney,  under  instructions  from  President  Young,  given 
before  the  Pioneers  departed  for  the  West.  In  these  companies  were 
many  well  known  Utah  families.  George  Q.  Cannon,  then  a  youth  of 
twenty,  came  with  his  uncle,  John  Taylor;  and  Eliza  R.  Snow,  who 
became  the  most  prominent  of  "Mormon"  women,  was  in  Captain 
Grant's  "Hundred."  Late  in  July  or  early  in  August,  these  emigrants 
encountered  on  the  plains  fourteen  members  of  the  Mormon  Battalion, 
General  Kearney's  escort  from  San  Francisco  to  Fort  Leavenworth. 
There  the  volunteers,  who  were  husbands  or  sons  of  women  traveling 
with  the  emigrants,  expected  to  be  discharged.  The  experiences  of  the 
new-comers  largely  duplicated  those  of  the  Pioneers.  A  number  of 
deaths  and  births  occurred  among  them  before  and  after  passing  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 


44      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

morning,  just  before  breaking  camp,  they  were  set  upon  by  a 
band  of  Sioux  Indians,  who  tried  to  stampede  their  stock.  De- 
tected in  the  act,  the  red  men  shot  at  the  guards,  and  seizing 
one,  attempted  to  carry  him  off.  Freeing  himself  with  his 
fists,  he  felled  one  of  his  assailants.  An  alarm  was  sounded, 
and  in  a  moment  the  scene  was  alive  with  savages,  about  two 
hundred  mounted  warriors  coming  from  the  bluffs  and  tim- 
ber near  by.  Firing  a  volley,  they  charged  upon  the  camp. 
The  Pioneers  returned  the  fire,  made  a  counter  charge,  and 
put  the  Indians  to  flight.  Making  signs  of  peace,  the  latter 
returned  and  apologized,  stating  that  they  had  mistaken  the 
campers  for  Crow  Indians,  with  whom  the  Sioux  were  at  war. 
They  invited  the  "Mormon"  leaders  to  their  village,  five  miles 
away,  'where  eight  hundred  of  their  tribe  were  encamped. 
Heber  C.  Kimball  and  Wilford  Woodruff,  with  others,  ac- 
cepted the  invitation,  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace  with  the  sav- 
ages, and  recovered  from  them  several  horses,  stolen  on  the 
Sweetwater. 

At  Fort  Laramie  the  east-bound  party  dined  by  invitation 
with  Commodore  Stockton,  just  from  the  Bay  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. Journeying  down  the  Platte,  they  met  Captain  Hosea 
Stout  and  a  mounted  squad — the  old  Nauvoo  police — and  later 
were  greeted  by  Bishop  Newel  K.  Whitney  and  others,  who 
were  bringing  them  supplies.  On  the  31st  of  October,  their 
wagons  rolled  into  Winter  Quarters. 

More  Battalion  Men. — The  next  comers  into  Salt  Lake 
Valley  were  members  of  the  Mormon  Battalion,  recently 
mustered  out  of  service  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  They  arrived  on 
the  16th  of  October,  bringing  wheat,  corn,  potatoes,  and  gar- 
den seeds,  to  augment  the  limited  stores  of  their  fellow  set- 
tlers in  the  Great  Basin.  Most  of  the  soldiers  remained  in  the 
colony,  but  some  had  the  hardihood,  notwithstanding  the 
lateness  of  the  season,  to  recross  the  plains  and  join  their  fam- 
ilies on  the  frontier.  Subsisting  mainly  upon  buffalo  meat, 
procured  during  the  journey,  they  pressed  on  through  wintry 
winds  and  snows,  and  after  much  hardship  and  suffering, 
reached  their  destination  about  the  middle  of  December. 


VI. 

EARLY  EVENTS  IN  "THE  VALLEY." 

1847-1849. 

Life  in  the  Old  Fort — First  Schools. — The  structure 
known  as  "The  Old  Fort"  stood  upon  the  block  now  called 
Pioneer  Square,  in  the  southwestern  part  of  Salt  Lake  City.  It 
was  begun  by  the  Pioneers,  and  completed  by  the  immigrants 
who  followed  in  their  wake  from  Winter  Quarters.  The  fort 
was  in  the  form  of  a  rectangle,  the  east  side  consisting  of  a 
row  of  log  houses,  while  the  north,  south  and  west  sides  were 
mud  walls.  This  describes  the  original  structure.  But  two 
additional  blocks  or  parts  of  blocks,  on  the  south,  were  en- 
closed in  like  manner  and  joined  on  to  the  original  stockade. 
The  extension  was  built  by  the  immigrants.  The  roofs,  which 
slanted  inward,  were  of  brush,  covered  with  earth,  the  doors 
and  windows  facing  the  interior;  and  each  house  had  a  small 
loop-hole,  looking  out.  Heavy  gates,  carefully  locked  at  night, 
guarded  the  main  entrance  to  the  enclosure. 

The  mistake  of  making  many  of  the  roofs  almost  flat,  in- 
stead of  sharply  slanting,  was  the  cause  of  much  discomfort. 
The  fore  part  of  the  winter  was  exceptionally  mild,  but  as  the 
season  advanced  heavy  snows  fell  and  melted,  soaking  through 


SOUTH  FORTS 


NORTH" 


the  earth  and  willow  roofs,  and  descending  in  drizzling 
streams  upon  the  miserable  inmates.  One  of  the  settlers  had 
plastered  his  walls  and  ceilings  with  white  clay,  a  good  qual- 
ity of  which  was  found  in  the  neighborhood;  but  the  merciless 
water  trickled  through,  carrying  with  it  in  solution  or  in  lumps 
the  treacherous  plastering. 

There  were  other  discomforts,  such  as  mice  and  bugs,  the 
latter  coming  in  the  green  timber  from  the  mountains.  The 
mice  were  also  native,  though  some  of  them  may  have  been 
brought  in  the  grain  wagons  of  the  immigrants.  Outside,  large 
white  wolves  howled  around  the  stockade,  and  even  attacked 


46      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

cattle  on  the  range.     Hunting  parties  had  to  be  organized  for 
their  extermination. 

Life  in  the  Old  Fort  was  anything  but  elysian :  and  yet  it 
had  its  bright  side.  More  than  one  happy  gathering,  more 
than  one  joyful  celebration,  was  held  within  those  rude  walls. 
Two  little  schools  were  taught  there  the  first  winter,  the  teach- 
ers being  Julian  Moses  and  Mary  Jane  Dilworth,  who  became 
Mrs.  F.  A.  Hammond. 

Outside  Locations — Further  Explorings. — Until  the  re- 
turn of  the  leaders  from  Winter  Quarters,  most  of  the  people 
in  Salt  Lake  Valley  continued  to  dwell  within  the  Fort.  A 
city  had  been  laid  out,  and  many  of  the  lots  had  been  distrib- 
uted, but  it  was  not  deemed  wise  to  build  upon  or  otherwise 
occupy  them,  until  the  colony  had  become  strong  enough  to 
protect  itself  against  possible  Indian  raids.  A  few  of  the  set- 

tlers,however,  anticipated  the 
general  evacuation  that  took 
place  when  Salt  Lake  City 
was  built.  As  early  as  the 
autumn  of  1847  some  moved 
out  and  established  them- 
selves in  other  parts.  The 
first  house  outside  the  Fort 
was  built  by  Lorenzo  D. 
Young,  on  the  site  of  the 
present  Bee  Hive  House,  the 
A  PIONEER  CABIN  official  residence  of  the  Pres- 

ident     of     the      "Mormon" 

Church.     Mr.  Young's  log  cabin  was  occupied  by  him  and  his 
family  in  December,  1847.* 


*The  removal  of  the  Young  family  from  the  fort  was  much  against 
the  wishes  of  their  friends,  who  feared  harm  to  them  from  the  Indians. 
An  incident  occurred  that  winter  which  proved  the  fear  to  be  well 
founded.  Mrs.  Young,  who  was  mother  to  the  first  white  male  child 
born  in  the  Valley,  was  alone  with  her  infant  one  day,  when  an  Indian, 
a  fierce-looking  fellow,  came  to  the  door,  begging  bread.  She  gave 
him  two  small  biscuits,  but  with  these  he  was  not  content.  She  gave 
him  another,  all  the  bread  she  had,  but  still  he  demanded  more.  Being 
told  that  there  was  no  more  he  became  furious,  and  fitting  an,  arrow  to 
his  bow,  aimed  at  her  heart.  She  thought  the  last  moment  for  herself 
and  her  helpless  babe  had  come.  Not  yet!  In  another  part  of  the 
house  was  a  large  dog,  a  powerful  mastiff,  purchased  by  her  husband 
on  leaving  the  fort,  and  kept  upon  the  premises  for  her  protection. 
Making  a  sign  to  the  Indian,  as  if  in  compliance  with  his  demand,  she 
passed  into  the  next  room  and  untied  the  dog.  "Seize  him!"  she  ex- 
claimed. The  mastiff  darted  through  the  door-way  sprang  upon  the 
intruder,  bit  him  savagely  and  bore  him  to  the  ground.  He  pleaded 
for  his  life,  and  Mrs.  Young,  after  prudently  relieving  him  of  his  bow 


EARLY    K VENTS  IN  "THE   VALLEY."  47 

It  was  well  for  our  poorly-housed  "oldest  inhabitants," 
that  the  greater  part  of  their  first  winter  in  the  mountains 
was  mild  and  open.  Logging,  building,  and  exploring  con- 
tinued at  intervals  until  spring.  In  December,  Parley  P. 
Pratt  and  others,  taking  with  them  a  boat  and  a  fish-net  in  a 
wagon  drawn  by  oxen,  made  a  trip  to  Utah  Lake.  They 
caught  a  few  fish,  but  their  success  was  not  encouraging. 
Returning,  Mr.  Pratt  and  a  companion  named  Summers  passed 
through  Cedar,  Rush,  and  Tooele  valleys.  Utah  Valley  had 
been  explored  during  the  previous  August. 

Beginnings  of  Davis  and  Weber  Counties. — The  first 
lands  settled  upon,  after  those  lying  immediately  south  of 
Ensign  Peak,  are  now  included  in  Davis  and  Weber  counties. 
In  the  autumn  of  1847,  Perrigrine  Sessions,  a  captain  of  fifty 
in  the  immigration  of  that  year,  moved  northward  from  the 
fort  about  ten  miles,  and  encamped  on  the  present  site  of 
Bountiful.  Hector  C.  Haight  followed,  halting  his  wagons 
six  or  seven  miles  beyond,  on  Haight's  Creek  (Kaysville). 
Already  had  Thomas  Grover  encamped  where  Centerville 
now  stands.  These  were  the  beginnings  of  Davis  County, 
which  was  named  after  Captain  Daniel  C.  Davis  of  the  Mor- 
mon Battalion,  who  also  made  a  home  in  that  locality. 

The  pioneer  of  Weber  County  was  Captain  James  Brown. 
On  his  way  to  California  in  August,  1847,  he  crossed  Weber 
River,  where  stood  a  log  fort  owned  by  Miles  M.  Goodyear, 
who  held  some  adjacent  ground  under  a  grant  from  the  Mex- 
ican Government.  Goodyear,  a  trapper  and  trader,  had  met 
the  Pioneers  on  Bear  River,  and  endeavored,  like  Colonel 
Bridger,  to  dissuade  them  from  bringing  a  colony  into  Salt 
Lake  Valley.  Captain  Brown  called  at  the  fort,  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  proprietor,  and  upon  returning  from  the 
Coast  later  in  the  season,  purchased  from  Goodyear  his  lands 


and  arrow,  called  off  the  dog,  and  set  the  wounded  savage  at  liberty. 
He  was  badly  hurt.  The  brave  woman  magnanimously  washed  his 
wound,  applied  a  healing  plaster,  and  sent  him  away,  a  wiser  if  not  a 
better  Indian. 

The  settlements  in  Salt  Lake  Valley  were  not  much  molested  by 
the  red  men.  Others,  formed  later,  fared  worse.  It  was  a  custom  with 
the  savages  to  torture  and  kill,  if  they  could  not  sell,  their  prisoners  of 
war.  Several  Indian  children  were  ransomed  by  persons  at  the  fort, 
to  save  them  from  being  shot  or  more  cruelly  put  to  death  by  their 
captors.  One  of  these  children,  a  girl  named  Sally,  was  purchased  by 
Charles  Decker,  who  gave  her  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Clara  D.  Young,  by 
whom  she  was  reared  to  womanhood.  Sally,  after  becoming  civilized, 
went  back  to  her  people  from  a  pure  sense  of  duty.  Hoping  to  benefit 
her  race  by  living  among  them,  she  became  the  wife  of  Kanosh,  a 
Pauvant  chief,  but  was  unable  to  endure  the  hardships  of  savage  life, 
and  soon  passed  away. 


48      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  improvements,  and  settling  there,  founded  Brownsville, 
which  became  Ogden  City.* 

Pioneer  Mills. — About  the  time  that  these  northern  set- 
tlements were  formed,  the  Gardner  Brothers,  Archibald  and 
Robert,  built  a  saw-mill,  and  John  Neff  a  grist-mill,  on  Mill 
Creek,  south  of  Salt  Lake  City;  and  gradually  farming  dis- 
tricts spread  in  that  and  in  other  directions. 

The  Cricket  Plague. — Little  more  than  a  camp  was  the 
so-called  "City" — a  log  and  mud  fort,  enclosing  huts,  tents, 
and  wagons,  with  about  eighteen  hundred  inhabitants — when 
an  event  occurred  as  unlooked  for  as  it  was  terrible.  It  was 
the  cricket  plague. 

This  calamity  befell  while  President  Young  was  still  on 
the  Missouri  River,  preparing  to  bring  more  of  the  migrating 
people  to  their  new  home  among  the  mountains.  Those  al- 
ready here  were  anxiously  awaiting  the  results  of  their  first 
labors  to  redeem  the  desert  and  make  the  wilderness  to  blos- 
som. As  already  shown,  some  plowing  and  planting  had  been 
done  by  the  Pioneers  immediately  upon  their  arrival.  But 
the  seeds  then  put  in,  though  well  irrigated,  did  not  mature, 
owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  season.  It  was  therefore  their 
first  real  harvest  in  this  region  that  the  settlers  were  looking 
forward  to  at  the  time  of  the  cricket  invasion. 

Much  depended  upon  that  harvest,  not  only  for  the  people 
already  in  the  Valley,  but  for  the  immigrants,  who  were  about 
to  join  them  from  the  far-away  frontier.  The  supplies  brought 
by  those  who  came  the  first  season  had  been  designed  to  last 
only  about  twelve  months.  They  were  gradually  getting  low, 
and  these  settlers  were  well-nigh  isolated  from  the  rest  of 
mankind.  "A  thousand  miles  from  anywhere"  was  the  phrase 
used  by  them  to  describe  their  location.  They  had  little  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world,  and  that  little  was  by 
means  of  the  ox-team  and  the  pack-mule.  If  their  harvest 
failed — what  then? 

In  the  spring  of  1848,  five  thousand  acres  of  land  were 
under  cultivation  in  Salt  Lake  Valley.  Nine  hundred  acres 
had  been  sown  with  winter  wheat,  which  was  just  beginning 
to  sprout.  Then  came  the  crickets!  In  May  and  June 
myriads  of  these  destructive  pests  rolled  in  black  legions  down 
the  mountain  sides,  and  attacked  the  fields  of  growing  grain. 
The  tender  crops  fell  an  easy  prey  to  their  fierce  voracity.  The 
ground  over  which  they  had  passed  looked  as  if  scorched  by 
fire. 


*The  extent  of  the  Goodyear  tract  was  twenty  miles  square.  The 
trapper's  picket  fort,  enclosing  a  few  log  cabins,  stood  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Weber,  not  far  from  the  present  Union  Railway  depot. 


EARLY  EVENTS  IN  "THE  VALLEY." 


49 


Thoroughly  alarmed,  the  community — men,  women  and 
children — marshaled  themselves  to  fight  the  ravenous  foe. 
Some  went  through  the  fields,  killing  the  crickets — but  crush- 
ing much  of  the  tender  grain.  Some  dug  ditches  around  the 
farms,  turned  water  into  the  trenches,  and  drove  and  drowned 
therein  the  black  devourers.  Oth- 
ers beat  them  back  with  clubs 
and  brooms,  or  burned  them  in 
fires.  Still  the  crickets  prevailed. 
Despite  all  that  could  be  done  by 
the  settlers,  their  hope  of  a  har- 
vest was  fast  vanishing,  a  har- 
vest upon  which  life  itself  seemed 
to  depend. 

Rescued  by  the  Gulls. — They 
were  rescued,  as  they  believed, 
by  a  miracle — a  greater  miracle 
than  is  said  to  have  saved  Rome, 
when  the  cackling  of  geese  roused 
the  slumbering  city  in  time  to 
beat  back  the  invading  Gauls.  In 
the  midst  of  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion, when  it  seemed  as  if  nothing 
could  stay  it,  great  flocks  of  gulls 
appeared,  filling  the  air  with  their 
white  wings  and  plaintive  cries. 
They  settled  down  upon  the  half- 
ruined  fields.  At  first  it  looked  as 
if  they  had  come  but  to  help  the 
crickets  destroy.  But  their  real 
purpose  was  soon  apparent.  They 
came  to  prey  upon  the  destroyers. 
All  day  long  they  gorged  them- 
selves, disgorged,  and  feasted 
again,  the  white  gulls  upon  the 
black  crickets, like  hosts  of  heaven 
and  hell  contending,  until  the 
pests  were  vanquished  and  the 
people  were  saved.  The  birds 
then  returned  to  their  habitat — 
the  Lake  islands,  leaving  the 

grateful  settlers  to  shed  tears  of  joy  over  their  timely  deliver- 
ance. 

A  season  of  scarcity  followed,  but  no  fatal  famine;  and 
before  the  worst  came,  the  glad  people  celebrated,  with  a  pub- 
lic feast,  their  first  harvest  home. 

A  Sacred  Bird. — The  gull  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  vicin- 


GULL   MONUMENT 


50      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ity  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  The  wanton  killing  of  these  birds 
was  made  punishable  by  law.  Rome  had  her  sacred  geese; 
Utah  would  have  her  sacred  gulls,  forever  to  be  held  in  honor 
as  the  heaven-sent  messengers  that  saved  the  Pioneers.* 

Feast  of  the  Harvest  Home.— The  harvest  feast  of  1848 
occurred  on  the  10th  of  August.  In  the  center  of  the  Fort  a 
bowery  was  erected,  and  underneath  tables  were  spread,  boun- 
teously and  richly  laden.  Says  Parley  P.  Pratt,  in  a  glowing 
description  of  the  event:  "Large  sheaves  of  wheat,  rye,  bar- 
ley, oats,  and  other  products,  were  hoisted  on  poles  for  exhibi- 
tion, and  there  was  prayer  and  thanksgiving,  congratulations, 
songs,  speeches,  music,  dancing,  smiling  faces,  and  merry 
hearts.  It  was  a  great  day  with  the  people  of  these  valleys, 
and  long  to  be  remembered  by  those  who  had  suffered  and 
waited  anxiously  for  the  results  of  a  first  effort  to  redeem  the 
interior  deserts  of  America." 

Immigration  of  1848. — In  September  of  that  year  Brigham 
Young  arrived  a  second  time  in  Salt  Lake  Valley,  bringing 
with  him  nearly  twenty-five  hundred  immigrants  and  about 
eight  hundred  wagons.  With  him  came  Heber  C.  Kimball  and 
Willard  Richards,  his  counselors  in  the  First  Presidency  of 
the  Church.  Winter  Quarters  had  been  practically  vacated, 
but  Kanesville  was  in  prospect,  a  town  laid  out  by  the  Latter- 
day  Saints  in  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa,  a  few  miles  above 
Council  Bluffs. f 


*From  accounts  given  by  early  settlers,  it  seems  that  there  were 
three  successive  years — 1848,  1849,  and  1850 — during  which  the  crickets 
after  partly  devastating  the  fields,  were  destroyed  by  the  timely  arrival 
of  the  gulls.  An  article  by  Dr.  James  E.  Talmage,  in  "The  Improve- 
ment Era/'  for  December,  1909,  throws  light  upon  this  subject. 

The  Rocky  Mountain  cricket  is  thus  described  by  Anson  Call: 
"When  full  grown  it  is  about  one  and  one-half  inches  in  length,  heavy 
and  clumsy  in  its  movements,  with  no  better  power  of  locomotion  than 
hopping  a  foot  or  two  at  a  time.  It  has  an  eagle-eyed,  staring  appear- 
ance, and  suggests  the  idea  that  it  may  be  the  habitation  of  a  vindic- 
tive little  demon." 

A  fitting  celebration  of  the  episode  of  the  crickets  and  the  gulls 
took  place  September  29,  1913,  when  the  Gull  Monument  was  unveiled 
on  Temple  Block,  Salt  Lake  City.  This  beautiful  monument  is  the 
work  of  a  Utah  sculptor,  Mahonri  M.  Young,  grandson  of  President 
Brigham  Young. 

tKanesville,  named  for  Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane,  became  a  point 
of  outfit  and  departure  for  the  Utah  emigrants.  Coming  from  Europe, 
by  way  of  New  Orleans,  they  steamed  up  the  Mississippi  and  the  Mis- 
souri to  that  point,  where  the  overland  journey  began.  Orson  Hyde, 
the  leading  man  at  Kanesville,  established  there,  in  February,  1849,  a 
paper  called  "The  Frontier  Guardian."  During  a  conference,  held  on 
the  site  of  Kanesville  in  December,  1847,  the  First  Presidency,  which 
had  been  vacant  since  the  death  of  Joseph  Smith,  was  organized. 


EARLY   EVENTS   IN  "THE  VALLEY."  51 

The  Food  Problem. — Immediately  after  President 
Young's  arrival,  a  conference  was  held  in  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
and  the  most  pressing  needs  of  the  community  received 
prompt  attention.  The  population  was  then  between  four  and 
five  thousand.  How  to  provide  for  them  was  a  problem,  as 
the  signs  of  a  long  and  severe  winter  began  to  show  them- 
selves. More  houses  might  be  built,  and  some  families  might 
make  shift  with  their  wagons  until  spring;  but  where  were  the 
"loaves  and  fishes"  with  which  to  feed  these  "five  thousand?"* 

The  winter  of  1848,1849  was  uncommonly  severe.  Heavy 
snows  and  violent  winds  prevailed,  and  the  weather,  from  the 
first  of  December  until  late  in  February,  was  extremely  cold. 
The  mercury  fell  to  thirty-three  degrees  below  zero,  An  in- 
ventory of  breadstuffs,  taken  early  in  February,  showed  about 
three-fourths  of  a  pound  per  day  for  each  person  until  the  be- 
ginning of  July.  The  pressure  of  the  famine  was  sorely  felt, 
but  the  community  generally  shared  alike,  and  extreme  suffer- 
ing was  thus  prevented. 

The  Pioneer  City. — The  Old  Fort  was  now  abandoned,  the 
families  all  moving  out  upon  the  town  lots  previously  distrib- 
uted to  them.  Many  took  with  them  their  log  huts,  portions 
of  the  old  stockade,  which  gradually  disappeared  as  the  city 
grew. 

Great  Salt  Lake  City — for  that  was  its  original  name — 
had  been  laid  out  in  the  summer  of  1847,  Orson  Pratt  and 
Henry  G.  Sherwood  making  the  preliminary  survey  on  the  sec- 
ond day  of  August.  The  altitude  at  the  southeast  corner  of 
Temple  Block — the  base  and  meridian — was  determined  as 
4,309  feet  above  sea  level.  The  plan  of  the  city  was  a  perfect 
square,  north,  south,  east  and  west;  each  block  containing  ten 

with  Brigham  Young  as  President,  Heber  C.  Kimball  as  First  Coun- 
selor, and  Willard  Richards  as  Second  Counselor.  These  three  led  the 
next  season's  immigration,  which  was  divided  into  three  large  com- 
panies. Daniel  H.  Wells,  Newel  K.  Whitney,  Lorenzo  Snow,  Frank- 
lin D.  Richards,  and  other  men  of  prominence  also  arrived  in  that  im- 
migration. Joseph  F.  Smith,  then  a  mere  lad,  accompanied  his  wid- 
owed mother,  Mary  Fielding  Smith,  who  drove  her  own  ox-wagon  over 
the  plains.  Other  notable  women  in  the  companies  were  Mary  Ann 
Angell  Young,  Vilate  Murray  Kimball,  Elizabeth  Ann  Smith  Whitney, 
Zina  D.  Hnntington  Young,  and  Emmeline  B.  Wells. 

*Says  H.  H.  Bancroft,  in  his  History  of  Utah:  "That  five  thou- 
sand persons,  including  a  very  large  proportion  of  women  and  children, 
almost  without  money,  almost  without  provisions,  except  the  milk  of 
their  kine  and  the  grain  which  they  had  raised  near  their  own  camps, 
should,  almost  without  the  loss  of  a  life,  have  accomplished  this  jour- 
ney of  more  than  twelve  hundred  miles,  crossing  range  after  range  of 
mountains,  bridging  rivers,  and  traversing  deserts,  while  liable  at  any 
moment  to  be  attacked  by  roaming  bands  of  savages,  is  one  of  the 
marvels  that  this  century  has  witnessed." 


52      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

acres  of  land.  The  streets  were  eight  rods  wide,  with  walks 
twenty  feet  in  width  on  either  side.  Four  blocks  were  re- 
served for  public  squares.* 

On  the  outskirts,  fields  of  five,  ten,  and  twenty  acres  were 
laid  out,  the  smallest  ones  nearest  the  town,  and  the  others 
graded  in  size  according  to  distance.  Each  householder  had 
a  city  lot  of  an  acre  and  a  quarter,  and  a  field,  with  enough 
water  to  irrigate  his  land.  The  planting  of  trees  was  encour- 
aged ;  and  in  time  rich  orchards  brought  forth  luscious  fruits, 
while  shade  trees  lined  the  clear,  sparkling  streams  flowing 
down  both  sides  of  the  charming  and  healthful  thoroughfares. 
Thus  was  planned  and  built  the  City  of  the  Pioneers,  the  par- 
ent and  model  of  hundreds  of  towns  and  villages  now  dotting 
the  surface  of  "The  Great  American  Desert." 


*Pioneer  Square,  the  site  of  the  Old  Fort,  is  still  a  public  park; 
Washington  Square,  where  the  Pioneers  first  encamped,  contains  the 
Salt  Lake  City  and  County  Building;  Union  Square,  with  the  buildings 
thereon,  has  been  occupied  successively  by  the  University  of  Deseret 
and  the  Salt  Lake  City  High  School,  the  latter  having  its  home  there 
at  this  writing  (1915).  The  Tenth  Ward  Square,  the  remaining  one  of 
the  four,  has  become  the  property  of  the  Utah  Light  &  Traction  Com- 
pany. 


VII. 

THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE   OF  DESERET. 

1849-1851. 

Beginnings  of  Government  in  the  Great  Basin.— Neces- 
sity now  arose  for  some  form  of  government,  pending  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  regular  civic  organization,  the  exact  nature 
of  which  could  not  be  determined  until  it  became  known  which 
country — Mexico  or  the  United  States — would  permanently 
possess  the  land  upon  which  the  "Mormon"  people  were  mak- 
ing their  homes.  The  war  between  the  two  nations  was  prac- 
tically over,  but  no  treaty  had  yet  been  signed,  and  the  Amer- 
ican inhabitants  of  Salt  Lake  Valley,  as  well  as  their  country- 
men along  the  California  coast,  were  still  upon  alien  soil. 

The  Salt  Lake  Stake. — Recognizing  the  existing  need, 
President  Young  and  his  associates,  before  returning  to  the 
Missouri  River,  had  provided  for  an  organization  which, 
though  ecclesiastical  in  form,  was  acceptable  to  the  colonists, 
nearly  all  of  whom  were  members  of  the  same  religious  body. 
At  a  conference  held  in  the  Fort,  October,  1847,  what  is  known 
as  a  "Stake"  organization  was  effected.  Salt  Lake  Valley  be- 
came Salt  Lake  Stake,  and  later  the  Stake  was  divided  into 
Wards,  nineteen  of  which  were  in  Salt  Lake  City.* 

Civic  Officers.— In  addition  to  the  Stake  and  Ward  au- 
thorities, whose  functions  were  ecclesiastical,  other  officers 
were  appointed,  by  common  consent,  to  preserve  the  peace, 
levy  and  collect  taxes,  and  carry  on  public  improvements.  A 
"County  Organization"  is  referred  to  in  the  Pioneer  records, 
with  such  officers  as  probate  judge,  sheriff,  recorder,  and  treas- 
urer. A  "Municipal  Council"  is  likewise  mentioned.  All  this 
before  the  setting  up  of  a  regular  civic  government.  John  Van 
Cott  was  marshal,  with  John  Nebeker  as  his  assistant;  and 

*A  Stake  is  a  subdivision  of  the  Church,  and  like  the  Church  is 
presided  over  by  three  high  priests,  who  constitute  the  stake  presi- 
dency. Associated  with  these  are  twelve  high  priests,  known  as  high 
councilors.  Each  ward  is  presided  over  by  a  bishop  with  two  counsel- 
ors. The  bishops  are  as  common  magistrates,  and  the  high  council, 
with  the  stake  presidency,  sits  as  an  appellate  court.  Salt  Lake  stake 
was  organized  with  John  Smith,  Charles  C.  Rich,  and  John  Young  as 
its  presidency,  and  with  Henry  G.  Sherwood,  Thomas  Grover,  Levi 
Jackman,  John  Murdock,  Daniel  Spencer,  Lewis  Abbott,  Ira  Eldredge, 
Edson  Whipple,  Shadrach  Roundy,  John  Vance,  Willard  Snow,  and 
Abraham  O.  Smoot  as  high  councilors.  Tarlton  Lewis  was  the  first 
bishop,  prior  to  the  ordination,  in  February,  1849,  of  nineteen  bishops 
to  preside  over  the  newly-created  wards  of  Salt  Lake  City.  The  Stake 
was  then  re-organized,  with  Daniel  Spencer,  David  Fullmer  and  Wil- 
lard Snow  as  its  Presidency. 


54      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH, 

Albert  Carrington  served  as  postmaster.  The  situation  of 
these  people  was  similar  to  that  of  the  early  settlers  of  New 
England,  and  their  methods  of  government  were  much  the 
same  as  those  of  their  ancestors  in  Massachusetts,  Connecti- 
cut, and  other  colonies. 

First  Political  Convention. — A  purely  political  rule,  how- 
ever, soon  became  necessary.  By  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe 
Hidalgo,  signed  on  the  2nd  of  February,  1848,  Mexico  ceded 
this  region  to  the  United  States,  and  the  settlers,  most  of 
whom  were  native  Americans,  took  steps,  after  the  return  of 
their  absent  leaders,  toward  founding  an  American  common- 
wealth, a  government  subject  to  and  agreeable  with  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  great  Republic. 

As  usual  in  such  cases,  a  convention  was  called,  to  con- 
sider the  political  needs  of  the  community.  This  call,  issued 
in  February,  1849,  was  addressed  to  "all  the  citizens  of  that 
portion  of  Upper  California  lying  east  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains ;"  meaning,  in  general  terms,  the  country  bounded 
on  the  east  by  the  Rocky  Mountains,  on  the  west  by  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  on  the  north  by  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  and  on  the 
south  by  the  Republic  of  Mexico.*  The  people  were  invited  to 
meet  at  Great  Salt  Lake  City  on  Monday,  the  5th  of  March. 
The  thought  of  Inauguration  Day  was  probably  in  mind  when 
the  call  was  issued,  but  the  4th  falling  upon  Sunday,  the  5th 
was  chosen  instead. 

A  Territory  Proposed. — When  the  mass  convention  assem- 
bled, it  was  decided  to  ask  Congress  for  the  organization  of  a 
Territory,  to  be  named  Deseret,  a  word  taken  from  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  and  signifying  "Honey  Bee."  Accordingly,  a  peti- 
tion was  sent  to  the  City  of  Washington,  requesting  early 
action  in  the  matter.  The  bearer  of  this  petition,  Dr.  John 
M.  Bernhisel,  took  with  him  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Sen- 
ator Stephen  A.  Douglas,  signed  by  Brigham  Young,  Heber 
C.  Kimball  and  Willard  Richards,  the  three  most  prominent 
men  in  the  community.  These  men  had  been  acquainted  with 
Senator  Douglas  in  Illinois.  They  were  now  the  First  Pres- 
idency of  the  "Mormon"  Church. f 

*"Upper  California,"  so  called  to  distinguish  it  from  Lower  Cali- 
fornia the  peninsula  still  bearing  that  -name,  comprised  the  present 
States  of  California,  Nevada,  and  Utah,  here  named  in  the  order  of 
their  elevation  to  sovereignty. 

tThe  personnel  of  the  General  Authorities  of  the  Church  stood  as 
follows:  First  Presidency,  Brigham  Young,  Heber  C.  Kimball  Wil- 
lard Richards:  Twelve  Apostles,  Orson  Hyde,  Parley  P.  Pratt,  Orson 
Pratt  John  Taylor,  Wilford  Woodruff,  George  A.  Smith,  Amasa  M. 
Lyman  Ezra  T.  Benson,  Charles  C.  Rich,  Lorenzo  Snow.  Erastus 
Snow,  Franklin  D.  Richards;  Patriarch,  John  Smith;  First  Council  of 


THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.       55 

A  Temporary  State  Government. — The  Convention 
adopted  a  constitution,  which  ordained  and  established  "The 
Provisional  Government  of  the  State  of  Deseret;"  the  bound- 
aries of  which  were  the  same  as  those  of  the  proposed  Terri- 
tory. They  embraced  present  Utah  and  Nevada,  and  parts  of 
Wyoming,  Colorado,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  with  a  strip 
of  sea-coast  in  Southern  California,  including  the  port  of 
San  Diego.* 

The  Earliest  Election. — The  election  of  officers  for  the 
Provisional'  Government  took  place  at  Salt  Lake  City  on  the 
12th  of  March,  1849,  with  the  following  result:  Brigham 
Young,  Governor;  Heber  C.  Kimball,  Chief  Justice;  Newel 
K.  Whitney  and  John  Taylor,  Associate  Justices;  Horace  S. 
Eldredge,  Marshal;  Daniel  H. Wells,  Attorney  General;  Albert 
Carrington,  Assessor  and  Collector;  Joseph  L.  Hey  wood,  Sur- 
veyor of  Highways.  At  the  same  time  justices  of  the  peace 
were  elected,  one  for  each  of  the  nineteen  wards  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  each  of  the  outside  precincts,  namely,  Weber  River, 
North  Mill  Canyon  (Sessions  Settlement),  Big  Cottonwood, 
North  Cottonwood,  South  Cottonwood,  and  Mill  Creek.  Sub- 
sequently the  members  of  the  Legislature  were  chosen.  All 
officers,  whether  elective  or  appointive,  served  without  pay. 

The  General  Assembly— Petition  for  Statehood.— The 
General  Assembly  of  Deseret  held  its  first  session  on  the  2nd 
of  July,  probably  at  the  Council  House,  which  was  also  known 

the  Seventy,  Joseph  Young,  Levi  W.  Hancock,  Henry  Herriman,  Zera 
Pulsipher,  Albert  P.  Rockwood,  Benjamin  L.  Clapp,  Jedediah  M. 
Grant;  Presiding  Bishop,  Newel  K.  Whitney.  Presidents  Brigham 
Young  and  Heber  C.  Kimball  acted  as  counselors  to  the  Presiding 
Bishop. 

*The  Constitution  of  Deseret  provided  that  the  State  Government 
should  have  its  seat  at  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  with  its  powers  divided 
into  three  branches — legislative,  executive,  and  judicial.  All  the  offi- 
cers were  elective  by  the  people,  and  the  Legislature,  or  General  As- 
sembly, was  to  hold  annual  sessions,  the  initial  one  on  the  first  Mon- 
day in  July,  1849.  All  subsequent  sessions  were  to  be  held  on  the  first 
Monday  in  December.  Members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  were 
to  be  elected  every  two  years,  and  the  Senators  every  four  years.  The 
former  must  be  at  least  twenty-five,  and  the  latter  thirty  years  of  age, 
all  free,  white,  male  citizens  of  the  United  States,  residing  in  the  State 
of  Deseret.  The  Legislature  was  to  elect  its  own  officers,  who,  with 
the  members,  were  to  make  oath  or  affirmation  to  support  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  and  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Deseret. 
The  Governor's  term  of  office  was  four  years.  The  judiciary  was  to 
consist  of  a  Supreme  Court  and  such  other  inferior  tribunals  as  the 
General  Assembly  might  provide.  A  State  militia  was  to  be  organized, 
armed,  equipped  and  trained.  It  was  required  that  voters  at  the  first 
election  should  be  free,  white,  male  residents  of  the  State,  over  the. 
age  of  twenty-one. 


56      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

as  the  State  House.*  By  that  time  the  founders  of  the  com- 
monwealth had  become  better  informed  respecting  the  rela- 
tive advantages  and  disadvantages  of  State  and  Territorial 
government,  and  had  decided  to  ask  Congress  to  admit  Deseret 
into  the  Union  as  a  State.  Accordingly,  a  new  petition  was 
prepared,  and  having  been  signed  by  the  legislators  and  other 
citizens,  it  was  sent  to  Washington.  Colonel  Almon  W.  Bab- 


THE    COUNCIL    HOUSE. 

bitt:  was  the  bearer  of  this  petition    and  a  copy  of  the  state 
constitution  to  the  national  capital. f 

Proposed  Joint  Admission. — The  people  west  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  having  also  set  up  a  provisional  government,  it  was 
proposed  to.  secure  the  admission  of  Deseret  and  California  as 
one  State,  with  the  understanding  that  they  would  afterwards 
separate  and  form  two  distinct  commonwealths.  President 


*The  Council  House,  Utah's  first  legislative  hall,  stood  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Main  and  South  Temple  Streets,  Salt  Lake  City.  It  was  built  of 
red  standstone,  was  erected  in  1848-1849,  and  destroyed  by  fire  in  1883. 
The  old  site  is  now  occupied  by  the  Deseret  News  Building. 

tThe  new  petition  set  forth  that  the  people  of  Deseret,  for  their 
own  security,  and  to  preserve  the  constitutional  right  of  the  United 
States  to  hold  jurisdiction  here,  had  organized  a  Provisional  State 
Government,  under  which  the  civil  policy  of  the  Nation  was  duly 
maintained;  it  affirmed  that  there  was  a  sufficient  number  of  individ- 
uals residing  within  the  State  to  support  a  government  of  this  charac- 
ter, thereby  relieving  the  General  Government  from  the  expenses  of 
a  territorial  rule;  and  for  these  and  other  reasons  Congress  was  asked  to 
ratify  the  proposed  constitution  and  admit  Deseret  into  the  Union  on 
au  equal  footing  with  the  other  States, 


THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.       57 

Zachary  Taylor  was  said  to  favor  this  plan,  which  promised  a 
solution  of  the  slavery  question  in  the  newly-acquired  prov- 
ince, the  inhabitants  of  which  were  to  decide  for  themselves 
whether  the  State  should  be  slave  or  free.  Deseret  consented 
to  the  propo.sed  union,  but  with  the  proviso  that  the  sep- 
aration should  take  place  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1851, 
when  each  State,  with  its  own  constitution,  was  to  become 
free,  sovereign  and  independent,  without  any  further  action 
by  Congress.  Nothing  came  of  the  movement,  California  be- 
ing unwilling  to  unite. 

The  Militia  Organization. — Meanwhile  the  Provisional 
Government  of  Deseret  went  into  effect.  One  of  its  first  acts 
was  to  organize  the  militia,  Charles  C.  Rich  and  Daniel  H. 
Wells  being  appointed  a  military  committee  for  that  purpose. 
They  completed  their  labors  in  May,  1849.  Nearly  all  the  men 
were  enrolled  as  soldiers  of  the  State.* 

Primitive  Mail  Service. — As  yet  there  was  no  regular  mail 
service,  the  news  from  East  or  West  being  brought  by  chance 
travelers.  The  eastbound  mail,  in  the  summer  of  1849,  was 
carried  by  Colonel  Babbitt,  on  his  way  to  Washington.  In 
those  days  letters  were  without  envelopes  or  stamps,  and 
were  wrapped  in  buckskin  covers,  tied  round  and  round  with 
strings  of  the  same  material. f 

Almost  a  Famine. — The  work  of  building  up  the  State 
went  steadily  on,  though  in  the  face  of  distressing  conditions. 
There  was  almost  a  famine  in  the  land.  A  scant  harvest,  re- 
sulting from  the  cricket  plague,  as  well  as  from  drouth  and 
frost,  had  made  the  food  question  a  serious  one,  and  clothing 
and  other  necessaries  were  almost  as  scarce  as  bread-stuffs. 
Nearly  every  man  in  the  community  dressed  in  buckskin  and 


*Men  over  fifty  years  of  age  were  called  "Silver  Greys,"  and  those 
under  eighteen  "Juvenile  Rifles."  The  militia  was  known  as  "The 
Nauvoo  Legion,"  a  name  previously  borne  by  the  Nauvoo  part  of  the 
militia  of  Illinois.  It  was  modeled,  with  some  variations,  after  the 
Roman  Legion.  There  were  two  cohorts — one  of  cavalry,  under  Brig- 
adier-General Jedediah  M.  Grant,  and  the  other  of  infantry,  under 
Brigadier-General  Horace  S.  Eldredge.  Two  companies  comprised 
the  artillery.  The  first  militia  organization  was  a  body  of  cavalry — 
"Minute  Men" — commanded  by  Captain  George  D.  Grant.  Subse- 
quently military  districts  were  established.  The  chief  officer  of  the 
Legion  was  Lieutenant-General  Daniel  H.  Wells. 

t"How  quiet,  how  still,  how  free  from  excitement  we  live!  The 
legislation  of  our  High  Council,  the  decision  of  some  judge  or  court 
of  the  Church,  a  meeting,  a  dance,  a  visit,  exploring  tour,  the  arrival 
o;  a  party  of  trappers  and  traders,  a  Mexican  caravan,  a  party  arrived 
from  the  Pacific,  or  from  Fort  Bridger;  a  visit  of  Indians,  or  a  mail 
from  the  distant  world  once  or  twice  a  year,  is  all  that  breaks  the  mon- 
otony of  our  busy  and  peaceful  life."- — Parley  P.  Pratt,  in  a  private  let- 
ter, September,  1848. 


58      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


wore  Indian  moccasins.  Those  who  had  provisions  put  their 
families  upon  rations,  while  those  who  were  without,  or  had 

but  little,  dug  and  ate  sego  and 
thistle  roots,  or  cooked  the 
hides  of  animals,  to  eke  out 
their  scanty  store.* 

How  Relief  Came — The 
California  Gold  Discovery. — 
Relief  came  in  a  manner  most 
unexpected — and  here  the  his- 
tory of  Deseret  again  connects 
with  the  history  of  California. 
It  has  already  been  shown  how 
the  Mormon  Battalion  received 
its  discharge  at  Los  Angeles  in 
July,  1847,  and  how  the  main 
body  of  the  volunteers  set  out 
to  rejoin  their  families  and 
friends,  in  the  Great  Basin  or 
on  the  Missouri  frontier.  Our 
narrative  now  has  to  do  with 
these  returning  soldiers.  Pur- 
suing at  first  a  northwesterly 
course,  they  came  to  Suiter's 
Fort,  near  the  present  City  of 

Sacramento,  and  there  some  of  them  found  temporary  employ- 
ment. The  main  body,  reaching  Lake  Tahoe,  met  Samuel 
Brannan,  coming  back  from  Salt"  Lake  Valley  after  his  inef- 
fectual attempt  to  persuade  the  Pioneers  to  locate  their  new 
home  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Brannan  gave  a  doleful  account  of 
the  place  they  had  chosen  for  a  settlement,  and  expressed  the 
belief  that  they  would  yet  follow  his  advice  and  remove  to  Cali- 
fornia. At  Truckee  River  the  Battalion  men  met  Captain  Brown, 
and  received  from  him  the  epistle  of  the  Church  authorities, 
advising  such  of  them  as  had  no  families  to  remain  on  the 
Coast  and  work  through  the  winter.  About  half  of  them  turned 
back,  quite  a  number  rejoining  their  comrades  at  Sutter's  Fort, 
where  they  also  secured  employment. 

About  forty-five  miles  east  from  the  Fort,  in  the  little  val- 
ley of  Coloma,  on  the  south  fork  of  the  American  River,  a  saw 
mill  had  been  erected  for  Captain  Sutter.  After  the  mill  was 
completed,  the  water  was  turned  into  the  race,  to  clear  away 
dirt  and  other  debris,  preliminary  to  a  trial  run.  The  stream 
having  been  shut  off,  Sutter's  foreman,  while  walking  along 


THE   SEGO   LILY. 


:;cThe  memory  of  this  early  use  of  the  soft  and  bulbous  root  of  the 
sego  lily,  quite  as  much  as  the  natural  beauty  of  the  flower,  caused  it 
to  be  selected  in  after  years  as  the  floral  emblem  of  Utah. 


THE   PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.       59 

the  tail-race,  picked  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  a  few  yel- 
low, shining  particles,  about  the  size  of  wheat  grains  These 
were  assayed,  and  found  to  be  gold.  The  foreman  was  Tames 
W.  Marshall,  famed  as  the  discoverer  of  gold  in  California 
(January,  1848).  But  others  besides  Marshall  were  concerned 
in  the  famous  "find;"  "Mormon"  picks  and  shovels  had  helped 
to  bring  the  precious  metal  to  the  surface. 

The  Bigler  Record.— One  of  Sutter's  "Mormon"  em- 
ployes, Henry  W.  Bigler,  afterwards  of  St.  George,  Utah,  made 
what  was  probably  the  first  record  of  the  world-renowned  dis- 
covery. The  entry  in  his  diary  read  as  follows:  "Monday, 
24th,  This  day  some  kind  of  metal  was  found  in  the  tail  race 
that  looks  like  gold."  Six  days  later  he  wrote:  "Our  metal 
has  been  tried,  and  proves  to  be  gold.  It  is  thought  to  be  rich. 
We  have  picked  up  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  worth  last 
week."  Associated  with  Bigler  were  Alexander  Stephens. 
James  S.  Brown,  James  Berger,  William  J.  Johnson;  and 
Azariah  Smith,  all,  like  himself,  ex-members  of  the  Mormon 
Battalion.* 

Brannan  as  Promoter. — One  of  the  most  enthusiastic  pro- 
moters of  the  gold  excitement  was  Samuel  Brannan.  He 
stirred  San  Francisco,  which  was  at  first  indifferent,  to  a  fever 
of  agitation  over  the  event.  Coming  from  Sutter's  Fort,  he 
brought  with  him,  as  did  others,  gold  dust  and  nuggets  from 
the  placers.  "Gold!  Gold!  Gold!"  shouted  Brannan,  as  he 
strode  down  the  street,  swinging  his  hat  with  one  hand,  and 
holding  in  the  other  a  bottle  of  the  yellow  dust,  which  he  dis- 
played to  the  gaping  crowds  that  gathered  round  him.  Sight, 
reinforcing  rumor,  kindled  a  fire  that  could  not  be  quenched ; 
Brannan's  paper,  the  "Star,"  added  fuel  to  the  flame ;  and 
from  the  wild  rush  to  the  gold  fields  that  followed,  San  Fran- 
cisco was  in  some  danger  of  being  depopulated. 

The  "Argonauts." — The  excitement  was  not  confined  to 
California.  It  extended  over  the  civilized  world,  and  by  sea 
and  land  eager  souls  from  many  nations  hurried  to  the  new  El 
Dorado.  Much  of  this  emigration  passed  through  Salt  Lake 
Valley.  Here  the  tired  gold-seekers  halted  for  rest,  or  to  ob- 
tain means  to  enable  them  to  reach  their  journey's  end.  Some 
had  loaded  their  wagons  with  merchandise  and  supplies  .for 

*Thesc  names  are  given  as  they  appear  in  James  S.  Brown's  "Life 
of  a  Pioneer."  Some  of  the  richest  gold  finds  on  the  American  River 
were  due  to  these  men  and  their  comrades  who  took  part  in  extending 
the  area  of  the  original  discovery.  "Mormon  Island,"  in  the  American 
River,  became  noted  for  its  "diggings."  A  number  of  the  Battalion 
men,  while  working  on  Slitter's  land,  shared  the  results  of  their  labors 
with  him  and  his  partner,  Marshall,  who  furnished  provisions  and  tools 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  enterprise.  Afterwards  the  employes  op- 
erated independently  on  claims  of  their  own. 


60      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

the  mining  camps.  Impatient  at  their  slow  progress,  and  hear- 
ing that  other  merchants  had  arrived  by  sea  before  them, 
they  all  but  threw  away  the  valuable  goods  they  had  freighted 
over  a  thousand  miles.  Their  choice,  blooded,  though  now 
jaded  stock  was  eagerly  exchanged  for  the  fresh  mules  and 
horses  of  the  settlers.  Dry  goods,  groceries,  provisions,  cloth- 
ing, implements — in  short,  all  that  was  needed  by  the  poorly 
fed,  half-clad  community  in  the  mountains,  was  bartered  off  to 
them  at  almost  any  sacrifice,  so  anxious  were  the  owners  to 
lighten  their  loads  and  shorten  the  time  of  travel.  In  this  man- 
ner "the  gold  emigration,"  as  it  was  called,  greatly  benefited 
the  people  in  the  Basin. 

Heber  C.  Kimball's  Prophecy. — The  advent  of  the  gold 
hunters,  and  the  relief  that  came  with  them,  brought  about 

the  fulfillment  of  a  prophecy 
uttered  by  Heber  C.  Kimball 
several  months  before.  During 
the  days  of  scarcity,  while  the 
settlers  hardly  knew  where  to 
look  for  the  next  crust  of  bread 
or  for  rags  to  hide  their  naked- 
ness, President  Kimball  de- 
clared in  a  public  meeting  that 
''State's  goods,"  within  a  short 
time,  would  be  sold  in  Salt 
Lake  City  cheaper  than  in  St. 
Louis  or  New  York,  and  that 
the  people  would  be  abundant- 
ly supplied  with  food  and  cloth- 
ing. The  surprise  of  the  con- 
gregation at  hearing  these 
words  was  not  based  upon  any 
expectation  that  they  were  des- 
tined to  be  realized.  Rather 
were  the  people  astounded  that 
one  of  their  wisest  men  would 
HEBER  c.  KIMBALL.  make  such  a  seemingly  prepos- 

terous statement.  The  realization  came,  however,  in  the  man- 
ner described.* 


*Said  the  Frontier  Guardian:  "When  they  (the  emigrants)  saw  a 
few  bags  and  kegs  of  gold  dust  brought  in  by  our  boys,  it  made  them 
completely  enthusiastic.  Pack  mules  and  horses  that  were  worth 
twenty-five  dollars  in  ordinary  times,  would  readily  bring  two  hundred 
dollars  in  the  most  valuable  property  at  the  lowest  price.  Goods  and 
other  property  were  daily  offered  at  auction  in  all  parts  of  the  city. 
For  a  light  Yankee  wagon,  sometimes  three  or  four  great  heavy  ones 
would  be  offered  in  exchange,  and  a  yoke  of  oxen  thrown  in  at  that. 
Common  domestic  sheeting  sold  from  five  to  ten  cents  per  yard  by 


THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.      61 

The  Gold  Fever. — The  "gold  fever"  infected  some  of  the 
citizens  of  Deseret,  and  an  influence  had  to  be  exerted  by  the 
leading  men  to  prevent  too  large  an  emigration  from  these 
parts.  "We  cannot  eat  gold  and  silver,"  said  Brigham  Young, 
to  the  people  who  had  elected  him  Governor.  "Devote  your- 
selves to  agriculture,  manufacture,  coal  and  iron  mining;  es- 
tablish those  industries  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  ever  state's 
prosperity,  and  let  the  gold  and  silver  stay  where  they  are, 
until  the  proper  time  comes  to  bring  them  forth  and  utilize 
them."  Such  was  the  substance  of  his  advice.  Despite  all  per- 
suasion, however,  some  were  hurried  away,  overcome  by  the 
prevailing  thirst  for  sudden  wealth.* 

Governor  Young's  Attitude  Toward  Mining. — Governor 
Young,  while  deprecating  the  extravagances  of  the  gold  excite- 
ment, and  averse  to  the  premature  opening  of  precious  mines 
nearer  home,  had  no  prejudice  against  mining  as  a  vocation, 
though  some  of  his  critics  would  fain  have  the  world  so  be- 
lieve. Party  after  party  of  "Mormon"  missionaries,  on  their 
way  to  the  Pacific  Islands  and  other  parts,  were  counseled  by 
him  to  work  in  the  California  mines  long  enough  to  provide 
themselves  with  means  of  transportation  to  their  various  fields 
of  labor;  and  they  acted  accordingly. 

First  Money — The  Deseret  Mint. — Much  of  the  gold  mined 
in  California  found  its  way  to  Deseret,  and  served  a  timely 
purpose.  Money  was  exceedingly  scarce,  and  great  inconveni- 
ence had  resulted.  Exchange  and  barter  was  the  rule,  clothing 
and  furniture  being  paid  for  with  cattle,  wheat  or  potatoes. 
Frequently  little  bags  of  gold  dust  were  handed  around,  in  lieu 
of  dollars  and  cents.  An  effort  was  made  to  coin  the  dust,  but 
the  crucible  used  in  the  process  broke,  and  paper  money  was 


the  bolt.  The  best  of  spades  and  shovels  for  fifty  cents  each.  Vests 
that  cost  in  St.  Louis  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  each,  were  sold  at 
Salt  Lake  City  for  thirty-seven  and  one-half  cents.  Full  chests  of 
joiners'  tools  that  would  cost  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  in  the  East, 
were  sold  in  Salt  Lake  City  for  twenty-five  dollars.  Indeed,  almost 
every  article,  except  sugar  and  coffee,  were  selling  on  an  average  fifty 
per  cent,  below  wholesale  prices  in  the  Eastern  States." 

*On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Battalion  men 
who  had  been  advised  from  Salt  Lake  Valley  to  rejoin  the  main  body 
of  their  people  at  an  early  day,  did  so,  notwithstanding  the  prevalent 
and  constantly  growing  excitement  over  the  gold  fields  that  was  be- 
ginning to  sweep  the  coast  lands  like  a  cyclone.  Preparatory  to 
their  journey  to  Deseret,  in  1848,  they  rendezvoused  at  Dutch  Flat,  a 
few  miles  from  Coloma,  and  crossed  the  Sierra  Nevada  at  or  near  the 
head  of  the  American  River.  Three  of  their  number,  David  Browett, 
Daniel  Allen,  and  Henderson  Cox,  moving  out  ahead,  were  waylaid 
and  killed  by  Indians.  The  others  reached  their  destination  in  safety. 
Many  of  the  "Brooklyn"  company — perhaps  most  of  them— also  came 
to  "The  Valley;"  but  Brannan,  their  sometime  leader,  remained  in 
California.  He  died  many  years  later  in  Mexico. 


62     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

then  issued.*  A  second  attempt  to  coin  the  dust  succeeded,  and 
gold  pieces  were  then  issued,  ranging  in  value  from  two  and 
one-half  dollars  up  to  twenty  dollars.  These  coins  were  of  un- 
alloyed virgin  gold,  and  were  designed  merely  for  local  use. 
As  soon  as  United  States  money  became  available,  they  were 
called  in  and  disposed  of  as  bullion  to  the  Federal  mints.  The 
Deseret  Mint  was  in  a  small  adobe  building  on  South  Temple 
Street,  a  little  east  of  where  the  palatial  Hotel  Utah  now 
stands. f 

The  Stansbury  Expedition. — Late  in  August,  1849,  Cap- 
tain Howard  Stansbury,  of  the  United  States  Topographical 
Engineers,  arrived  from  Fort  Leavenworth  at  the  head  of  an 
expedition  having  as  its  object  a  Government  exploration  and 
survey  of  Great  Salt  Lake  Valley.  He  was  accompanied  by 
Lieutenant  John  W.  Gunnison,  also  of  the  Topographical 
Corps,  and  Lieutenant  G.  W.  Howland,  of  the  Mounted  Rifles. 
These,  with  fifteen  others,  composed  the  surveying  party.  A 
few  emigrants  for  California  had  traveled  with  them  from  the 
frontier. 

Rumors  of  the  coming  of  the  expedition  had  preceded  it, 
and  speculation  was  rife  as  to  its  purpose.  The  impression  pre- 
vailed that  the  lands  upon  which  the  people  had  settled  were 
about  to  be  seized  by  the  Government,  with  a  view  to  breaking 
up  the  colony;  an  impression  emphasized  by  an  incident  that 
occurred  a  few  days  before  Stansbury's  arrival.  While  Gen- 
eral John  Wilson,  the  newly-appointed  Indian  Agent  for  Cali- 
fornia, was  passing  through  Salt  Lake  City,  one  of  his  party 
had  boasted  that  the  General  held  authority  from  the  President 
of  the  United  States  to  drive  the  "Mormon"  settlers  from  their 
lands,  and  until  the  leader  of  the  surveying  expedition  ex- 
plained to  the  contrary,  his  coming  was  supposed  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  unauthorized  assertion  of  Wilson's  officious 
subordinate.  Captain  Stansbury,  calling  upon  Governor  Young, 

*The  first  bill— one  dollar— was  dated  January  1st,  1849.  This  was 
before  the  Government  of  Deseret  was  organized,  and  while  the 
Municipal  Council  was  attending  to  the  public  business.  The  making 
of  these  bills,  for  which  Brigham  Young  and  Thomas  Bullock  set  the 
type,  was  the  first  printing  done  in  Salt  Lake  Valley.  Old  bills,  issued 
by  the  Kirtland  Bank,  a  "Mormon"  institution  in  Ohio,  which  went 
down  in  the  financial  crash  of  1837,  also  served  as  a  temporary  cur- 
rency during  this  period. 

tThe  first  dies  for  the  Deseret  coins  were  cut  by  John  Kay,  as- 
sisted by  William  Clayton  and  Thomas  Bullock,  the  former  as  ac- 
countant, the  latter  as  weigher.  The  next  ones  were  made  by  Douglas 
Brown,  in  the  office  of  James  M.  Barlow,  jeweler,  whose  record  says: 
"For  a  number  of  years,  and  until  Governor  dimming  ordered  its  dis- 
continuance, I  refined  the  gold  and  coined  it  into  money."  The  dies, 
punches,  and  drop  or  hammer,  were  made  by  Alfred  B.  Lambson  and 
Martin  H.  Peck. 


THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.      63 

stated  his  real  object,  and  was  cordially  welcomed  and  offered 
all  possible  assistance  to  facilitate  his  operations;  a  fact  grate- 
fully acknowledged  by  him  in  his  book,  afterwards  published.* 


""'Exploration  and  Survey  of  the  Valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake," 
etc.,  by  Howard  Stansbury.  Philadelphia,  1852.  Another  title  for  the 
book  is  "Stansbury's  Expedition." 

Lieutenant  Gunnison  also  wrote  a  book  entitled  "The  Mormons — 
Their  History  and  Religion,"  wherein  he  says:  "We  found  them,  in 
1849,  organized  into  a  State,  with  all  the  order  of  legislative,  judicial, 
and  executive  offices,  regularly  filled  under  a  constitution  eminently 
republican  in  sentiment  and  tolerant  in  religion."  He  thus  goes  on: 
"Of  the  parties  organized  in  the  States  to  cross  the  plains,  there  was 
hardly  one  that  did  not  break  into  several  fragments,  and  the  division 
of  property  caused  a  great  deal  of  difficulty.  Many  of  these  litigants 
applied  to  the  courts  of  Deseret  for  redress  of  grievances,  and  there 
was  every  appearance  of  impartiality  and  strict  justice  done  to  all 
parties.  Of  course  there  would  be  dissatisfaction  when  the  right  was 
declared  to  belong  to  one  side  alone,  and  the  losers  circulated  letters 
far  and  near,  of  the  oppression  of  the  Mormons.  They  would  some- 
times rebel  against  the  equity  decisions,  and  then  they  were  made  to 
feel  the  full  majesty  of  civil  power.  For  contempt  of  court  they  were 
most  severely  fined,  and  in  the  end  found  it  a  losing  game  to  indulge 
in  vituperation  of  the  court,  or  make  remarks  derogatory  to  the  high 
functionaries.  Again,  the  fields  in  the  Valley  are  imperfectly  fenced, 
and  the  emigrants'  cattle  often  trespassed  upon  the  crops.  For  this 
a  good  remuneration  was  demanded,  and  the  value  being  so  enor- 
mously greater  than  in  the  States,  it  looked  to  the  stranger  as  an  im- 
position and  an  injustice  to  ask  so  large  a  price.  A  protest  would 
usually  be  made,  the  case  then  taken  before  the  Bishop,  and  the  costs 
added  to  the  original  demand.  Such  as  these  were  the  instances  of 
terrible  oppression  that  have  been  industriously  circulated  as  unjust 
acts  of  heartless  Mormons  upon  the  gold  emigration.  But  provisions 
were  sold  at  very  reasonable  prices,  and  their  many  deeds  of  charity 
to  the  sick  and  broken  down  gold-seekers,  all  speak  loudly  in  their 
favor,  and  must  eventually  redound  to  their  praise.  Such  kindness, 
and  apparently  brotherly  good  will  among  themselves,  had  its  effect 
in  converting  more  than  one  to  their  faith,  and  the  proselytes  deserted 
the  search  for  golden  ore,  supposing  they  had  found  there  pearls  of 
greater  price." 

Captain  Stansbury  wrote  in  a  similar  vein,  and  that,  after  an  ex- 
perience in  the  payment  of  fines  and  costs  resulting  from  the  trespass 
of  some  of  his  mules  upon  the  corn  fields  of  the  settlers.  He  testifies 
that  the  people  treated  the  passing  emigrants  with  fairness  and  kind- 
ness, and  that  the  latter  were  afforded  protection  against  Indians  and 
outlaws  in  general.  "Too  many  that  passed  through  their  settlements," 
says  Stansbury/'were  disposed  to  disregard  their  claim  to  the  land  they 
occupied,  to  ridicule  the  municipal  regulations  of  their  city,  and  to 
trespass  wantonly  upon  their  rights.  Such  offenders  were  promptly 
arrested  by  the  authorities,  made  to  pay  a  severe  fine,  and  in  some  in- 
stances were  imprisoned  or  made  to  labor  on  the  public  works;  a 
punishment  richly  merited,  and  which  would  have  been  inflicted 'upon 
them  in  any  civilized  community.  In  short,  these  people  presented 
the  appearance  of  a  quiet,  orderly,  industrious,  and  well-organized  so- 
ciety, as  much  so  as  one  would  meet  with  in  any  city  of  the  Union, 
having  the  rights  of  personal  property  as  perfectly  defined  and  as  re- 
ligiously respected  as  with  ourselves." 


64     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

He  was  aided  in  his  survey  of  Salt  Lake  Valley  by  Albert  Car- 
rington,  one  of  the  Pioneers. 

Immigration  of  1849.— The  immigrants  of  1849,  led  by 
Orson  Spencer,  George  A.  Smith,  Ezra  T.  Benson  and  others, 
suffered  severely  from  cholera,  especially  while  ascending  the 
Missouri  River,  between  St.  Louis  and  Kanesville.  A  Welsh 
company  under  Captain  Dan  Jones  was  particularly  unfortu- 
nate, losing  sixty  lives.  Three  companies  nearly  perished  in  a 
fearful  snow-storm  at  South  Pass.* 

Emigrational  and  Missionary  Activities. — In  the  fall  of 
that  year  the  Perpetual  Emigrating  Fund  Company  was  in- 
corporated, with  a  view  to  assisting  the  poor  among  the  Lat- 
ter-day Saints  in  various  countries  to  migrate  to  their  gather- 
ing place  in  the  West.  In  order  to  make  the  fund  perpetual, 
those  aided  by  it  were  expected  to  return,  as  soon  as  possible, 
the  means  advanced  for  their  transportation.  Every  year  this 
company  sent  wagons  to  the  Missouri  River,  to  bring  emi- 
grants across  the  plains. f 

Simultaneously  with  the  inception  of  the  P.  E.  Fund  en- 
terprise, the  first  missionaries  were  sent  out  from  the  region 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  several  parties  were  bound  re- 
spectively for  Great  Britain,  Scandinavia,  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  California,  and  the  Pacific  Islands.! 

Character  of  the  Colonists. — Talent  and  genius,  brain  and 
brawn,  from  various  parts  of  the  world,  came  in  the  early  im- 
migrations to  Salt,  Lake  Valley.  There  were  farmers,  laborers, 
tradesmen,  mechanics,  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  busi- 


*These  and  other  circumstances  caused  the  "Mormon"  leaders  to 
contemplate  at  one  time  a  change  in  the  route  of  their  European  emi- 
gration. Instead  of  bringing  it  by  way  of  New  Orleans,  it  was  pro- 
posed to  have  it  cross  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  or  go  around  Cape 
Horn,  landing  at  San  Diego,  California,  thence  traveling  overland  to 
Salt  Lake  Valley.  This  project  was  never  put  into  effect,  but  much  of 
the  immigration  of  future  years,  avoiding  the  river  route,  landed  at 
Boston,  or  New  York,  and  thence  traveled  overland  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

tSome  seasons  as  many  as  five  hundred  wagons  were  furnished 
for  that  purpose.  Brigham  Young  was  president  of  the  company,  and 
Edward  Hunter  the  first  emigration  agent.  The  Church  and  its  leading 
men  were  the  principal  contributors  to  the  Fund,  and  five  thousand 
dollars  was  the  sum  of  the  original  contributions. 

tin  order  to  comprehend  the  full  significance  of  these  movements, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Latter-day  Saints  claim  lineal  de- 
scent from  ancient  Israel,  and  that  their  religion  contemplates  the 
literal  gathering  of  the  chosen  people,  in  fulfillment  of  prophecy. 
Converted  by  missionaries  sent  to  the  nations,  they  are  brought  to 
America,  "the  land  of  Zion,"  to  prepare  for  the  second  coming  of  the 
Messiah.  Such  is  the  meaning  of  all  the  missionary  and  emigrational 
activities  of  the  "Mormon"  Church.  It  was  to  promote  the  work  of 
"The  Gathering"  that  the  Perpetual  Emigrating  Fund  was  established. 


THE   PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF   DESERET.       65 


ness  men,  with  a  liberal  sprinkling-  of  artists^  musicians,  writ- 
ers, and  other  professional  people.  "In  their  degree  the  pick 
and  flower  of  England,"  was  the  comment  passed  upon  a  ship'c 
company  of  these  emigrants,  by  the  afterwards  famous  Charles 
Dickens,  while  a  reporter  on  a  London  newspaper.  A  select 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  after  thorough  investi- 
gation, pronounced  the  "Mormon"  emigrant  ship  "a  family 
under  strong  and  accepted  discipline,  with  every  provision  for 
comfort,  decorum,  and  internal  peace."* 

The   Land   Question. — Wherever   settlements   sprang   up 


EMIGRANT  TRAIN   PASSING  CHIMNEY  ROCK. 

they  were  upon  lands  claimed  by  the  Indians  and  acquired  by 
the  United  States  at  the  close  of  the  war  with  Mexico.  The 
Nation  was  expected  to  deal  with  the  Indians,  and  in  due  time 

*Crossing  the  sea,  generally  in  large  companies,  cared  for  by  capa- 
ble agents,  these  emigrants  traveled  in  various  ways  to  the  frontier, 
where  wagons  from  the  West  awaited  them.  They  were  then  reor- 
ganized for  the  journey  over  the  plains;  an  ox  team  and  wagon,  with 
three  months'  supplies,  being  necessary  for  the  average  family.  The 
toilsome  trip  at  an  end,  they  would  be  met  by  relatives  or  friends,  and 
p-iven  employment  at  Salt  Lake  City,  or  sent  to  settle  and  develop'new 
sections.  Most  of  the  new-comers,  taking  up  and  improving  land,  and 
practicing  wherever  possible  their  trades  or  professions,  soon  ac- 
quired homes  of  their  own.  The  company  described  by  Dickens  was 
that  of  the  ship  "Amazon,"  sailing  from  London  in  June,  1863. 


66     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

with  the  settlers,  but  until  it  took  steps  in  this  direction  the 
people  could  obtain  no  title  to  their  homes.  Much  anxiety  was 
felt  by  them  in  consequence.  While  waiting  for  the  National 
Government  to  dispose  of  the  soil,  the  Provisional  Government 
made  temporary  grants  to  its  citizens,  of  the  lands  they  occu- 
pied, including  the  use  of  grazing  ground,  with  water  and  tim- 
ber for  milling  and  lumbering  purposes.* 

Utah,  Sanpete,  and  Tooele  Valleys  Colonized.— South- 
ward from  Salt  Lake  Valley,  the  first  colonizing  movement 
was  made  in  the  spring  of  1849.  John  S.  Higbee,  a  pioneer  of 
1847,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  about  thirty  families,  with  wag- 
ons and  a  complete  outfit,  and  directed  to  form  a  settlement  in 
Utah  Valley.  The  company  included  Dimick  B.  Huntington, 
Indian  interpreter.  They  left  Salt  Lake  City  about  the  midd< ^ 
of  March,  and  camping  on  Provo  River,  built  a  fort  and  began 
to  farm.  Fort  Utah — for  so  it  was  called — was  the  usual  clus- 
ter of  log  houses  surrounded  by  a  stockade.  In  the  middle 
arose  a  block-house,  upon  which  a  cannon  was  mounted. i 

Sanpete  Valley  had  been  explored  during  the  previous 
August,  by  William  W.  Phelps,  Joseph  Home,  and  others. 
They  entered  the  valley  through  Salt  Creek  Canyon,  and  were 
entertained  in  a  most  friendly  manner  by  the  Indians.  In  the 
following  November  a  company  of  about  fifty  families,  from 
Salt  Lake  City  and  Centerville,  were  led  by  Isaac  Morley, 
Charles  Shumway,  Seth  Taft,  and  Nelson  Higgins,  to  the  pres- 
ent site  of  Manti,  where  they  formed  the  first  settlement  in 
that  part.  About  the  same  time  Tooele  Valley  began  to  be 
occupied,  Phineas  R.  Wright,  John  Rowberry,  and  Cyrus  Tol- 
man  being  the  earliest  to  settle  there. 

Southern  Utah  Explored — Counties  Organized. — During 
December,  1849,  Parley  P.  Pratt,  with  fifty  men,  explored 
southern  Utah,  as  far  as  the  junction  of  the  Rio  Virgen  and 
Santa  Clara  rivers.  This  party,  on  its  return,  indicated  a  place 
in  Little  Salt  Lake  Valley  where,  a  year  later,  George  A. 

*Twenty  years  passed,  after  the  settlement  of  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
before  the  United  States  land  laws  were  fully  extended  over  this  re- 
gion; though  a  Surveyor-General  was  appointed  for  Utah  and  tracts 
of  land  surveyed  under  his  authority  as  early  as  1855.  The  Pioneers 
distributed  their  lots  and  fields  by  ballot,  each  city  lot  costing  its 
holder  one  dollar  and  a  half,  with  small  fees  for  surveying  and  record- 
ing. Under  the  Provisional  Government,  a  "right  of  occupancy"  was 
issued  by  the  State  which  was  to  answer  the  purpose  of  a  title  until 
the  General  Government  surveyed  the  lands  and  put  them  on  the 
market. 

tThe  Pioneers  brought  a  cannon  with  them  to  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
and  several  pieces  of  artillery  came  in  the  companies  that  followed. 
Two  brass  cannon,  purchased  at  Slitter's  Fort  by  "Mormon"  Battalion 
men,  at  a  cost  of  over  five  hundred  dollars,  were  brought  to  Deseret 
and  donated  for  the  general  defense. 


THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.      67 

Smith  with  a  colony  located  the  town  of  Parowan.  All  these 
movements  were  directed  by  the  Church  authorities,  or  by  the 
General  Assembly  of  Deseret.  That  body,  during  the  winter 
of  1849-1850,  created  the  counties  of  Salt  Lake,  Weber,  Utah, 
Sanpete,  Tooele  and  Juab.  Juab  County  was  then  unoccu- 
pied. 

Indian  Troubles  Begin — The  Battle  Creek  Fight. — Up  to 
that  time  there  had  been  no  serious  trouble  with  the  Indians, 
barring  a  hot  skirmish  on  Battle  Creek,  where  Colonel  John 
Scott,  with  thirty  or  forty  mounted  men,  severely  punished  a 
band  of  renegades  who  had  been  stealing  horses  and  cattle 
from  herds  ranging  in  Salt  Lake  and  Tooele  valleys.  Battle 
Creek  (now  Pleasant  Grove)  took  its  name  from  this  fight, 
which  occurred  early  in  March,  1849. 

Nothing  in  that  episode  seems  to  have  disturbed  the 
friendly  relations  existing  between  the  settlers  and  the  princi- 
pal Ute  chieftains.  Sowiette  and  Walker — such  were  their 
names* — had  visited  Salt  Lake  Valley  the  year  before,  and 
invited  their  "white  brothers"  to  come  among  them  and  teach 
them  how  to  till  the  soil  and  become  civilized.  It  was  in  re- 
sponse to  this  invitation,  repeated  in  the  summer  of  1849,  that 
the  settlement  in  Sanpete  Valley  was  formed,  Chief  Walker 
himself  acting  as  guide  for  the  exploring  party.  Moreover,  he 
invited  Governor  Young  to  send  colonies  farther  south.  But 
all  the  savages  did  not  see  eye  to  eye  upon  these  propositions, 
or  else  some  of  them  changed  their  minds,  with  or  without  suf- 
ficient cause. 

Fort  Utah  Besieged. — For  several  months  after  Fort  Utah 
was  built,  the  Indians  on  Provo  River  remained  peaceable  and 
friendly.  Then  came  a  change ;  they  began  to  steal  grain  from 
the  fields,  and  cattle  and  horses  from  the  herds.  Now  and  then 
an  arrow  from  an  Indian  bow  would  fall  uncomfortably  near 
some  settler  while  out  gathering  wood  in  the  river  bottoms. 
Gradually  matters  grew  worse;  the  inhabitants  of  the  fort 
were  fired  upon  as  they  issued  from  the  stockade,  and  finally 
it  was  virtually  in  a  state  of  siege.  The  people  bore  these  an- 
noyances patiently  until  nearly  spring,  and  then  sent  word  to 
Governor  Young  at  Salt  Lake  City.  The  word  came  from 
Isaac  Higbee,  who  was  then  in  charge  of  the  colony.f 

-These  names  are  also  spelled  Sau-ee-ett  and  Wahker  or  Walkara, 
in  various  records. 

tOne  cause  of  the  trouble,  as  reported  to  Governor  Young  several 
years  later,  was  the  killing  of  an  Indian  chief,  "Old  Bishop,"  in  a  quar- 
rel with  three  men  from  the  Fort,  one  of  whom  laid  claim  to  a  shirt 
which  the  chief  was  wearing,  and  which  he  said  he  had  purchased. 
The  Indian  drew  his  bow,  and  was  shot  dead  by  one  of  his  assailants. 
His  tribesmen,  after  rinding  the  body,  began  the  depredations  com- 
plained of  by  the  settler%. 


68     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Governor  Young's  Quandary — Captain  Stansbury  Con- 
sulted.— The  Governor  faced  what  he  deemed  a  delicate  sit- 
uation. Fort  Utah  must  be  relieved,  and  at  once;  but  to 
violence  and  bloodshed  he  was  much  opposed.  Moreover,  he 
had  to  consider  how  the  Government  at  Washington  would  re- 
gard such  a  proceeding,  and  what  effect  it  would  have  upon 
Deseret's  petition  for  statehood.  Fortunately  there  was  a  Gov- 
ernment officer  near,  who  could  be  consulted — Captain  Stans- 
bury, whose  engineers,  while  operating  around  Utah  Lake,  had 
been  interfered  with  by  the  Indians.  Governor  Young,  after 
conferring  with  Captain  Stansbury,  decided  to  send  an  armed 
force  against  the  savage  marauders.  The  Captain  not  only 
approved  the  plan,  but  helped  to  fit  out  the  expedition.  He 
permitted  Lieutenant  Howland,  of  the  Mounted  Rifles,  to  act 
as  adjutant,  and  Doctor  Blake  as  surgeon,  of  the  expedition. 
He  also  furnished  tents  and  camp  equipage  for  the  soldiers. 

Minute  Men  to  the  Front. — Fifty  "minute  men,"  com- 
manded by  Captain  George  D.  Grant,  and  fifty  more  under 
Major  Andrew  Lytle,  set  out  for  the  scene  of  the  trouble.  The 
weather  was  extremely  cold,  and  the  hard  crusted  snow  lay 
nearly  two  feet  deep  in  the  valleys.  Progress  was  difficult. 
After  marching  nearly  all  night,  before  daybreak  on  the  morn- 
ing of  February  8th  the  two  companies  of  cavalry  arrived  at 
Provo  River.  They  found  the  settlers  in  their  fort  on  the  south 
side  of  the  stream,  and  the  Indians  a  mile  or  two  above, 
strongly  entrenched  among  willows  and  timber  in  the  river 
bottom.  Near  their  breastwork,  which  was  built  of  felled  cot- 
tonwood  trees,  was  a  double  log  house,  deserted  by  a  family 
that  had  taken  refuge  in  the  fort.  This  house  was  now  held  by 
the  savages — seventy-five  or  a  hundred  warriors,  under  Chiefs 
Old  Elk  and  Ope-carry.  Captain  Peter  W.  Conover,  the  fort 
commander,  united  his  men  with  those  from  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  took  a  position  about  half  a  mile  southwest  of  the  Indian 
breastwork. 

The  Provo  River  Battle. — A  battle  ensued  lasting  two 
days.  The  Indians  fought  stubbornly,  and  for  a  time  all  ef- 
forts to  dislodge  them  were  futile.  They  killed  Joseph  Hig- 
bee,  son  of  Isaac  Higbee,  and  wounded  several  others  of  the  at- 
tacking force.  Cannon  were  used  against  them,  but  with  little 
effect,  as  they  were  protected  by  the  river  bank,  and  most  of 
the  shots  passed  harmlessly  over.  Thrusting  their  gun  barrels 
through  the  frozen  snow  on  the  bank  above  them,  they  would 
lift  their  heads  long  enough  to  take  aim,  and  then  discharge 
volleys  at  their  assailants.  On  the  second  day  a  cavalry  charge, 
led  by  Lieutenant  William  H.  Kimball,  and  in  which  Lot 
Smith  and  Robert  T.  Burton  figured  prominently,  captured  the 


THE  PROVISIONAL  STATE  OF  DESERET.      69 

double  log  house,  from  the  windows  and  crevices  of  which  the 
savages  had  kept  up  an  almost  incessant  fire.  At  the  sugges- 
tion of  Lieutenant  Rowland,  a  barricade  of  planks,  shaped  like 
a  V,  was  constructed  and  placed  on  runners.  This  barricade, 
overlaid  with  brush  and  pointed  toward  the  enemy,  concealed 
a  dozen  men,  who  pushed  it  toward  the  Indian  stronghold. 
The  dusky  inmates,  seeing  the  strange  object  approach,  quick- 
ly divined  its  purpose  and  decided  to  retreat.  They  redoubled 
their  fire  until  night-fall,  and  then,  under  cover  of  the  dark- 
ness, withdrew. 

General  Wells  in  the  Field. — Next  morning  General  Wells 
arrived,  and  preparations  were  made  to  renew  the  attack  be- 
fore it  was  discovered  that  the  Indians  had  gone.  Some  of 
them  were  pursued  up  Rock  Canyon,  and  others — the  main 
body — to  the  south  end  of  Utah  Lake,  where  a  fight  took  place 
on%the  ice,  General  Wells  commanding  in  person.  The  hostiles 
were  all  but  annihilated.  Their  loss  included  Old  Elk,  who 
died  in  Rock  Canyon  of  wounds  received  during  the  two  days' 
battle  on  the  Provo.* 

Predatory  Shoshones — General  Eldredge. — In  September 
of  the  same  year  a  band  of  Shoshones,  angered  by  harsh  treat- 
ment experienced  at  the  hands  of  passing  emigrants,  began  a 
series  of  raids  upon  the  settlements  adjacent  to  Weber  and 
Ogden  rivers.  They  pastured  their  ponies  in  the  grain  fields, 
stole  corn  and  melons,  and  ran  off  cattle  and  horses,  until  their 
conduct  became  unbearable.  At  Brownsville  (Ogden)  Urban 
Stewart  fired  upon  some  Indian  night-raiders,  with  fatal  effect 
as  to  one  of  them ;  and  next  day  the  savages  retaliated  by  kill- 
ing a  man  named  Campbell,  at  the  same  time  threatening 
Brownsville  with  assault  and  massacre.  The  situation  being 
reported  to  militia  headquarters,  a  detachment  of  cavalry  under 
General  Horace  S.  Eldredge  was  hurried  to  the  scene.  As  the 
militia  advanced,  the  Indians  retired,  moving  northward  and 
taking  with  them  cattle  and  horses  belonging  to  the  settlers. 
This  closed  the  incident,  which  was  the  final  Indian  trouble 
deatt  with  by  the  authorities  of  the  State  of  Deseret. 

Notable  Acts  of  the  Provisional  Government. — It  was  the 
Provisional  Government  that  created  the  University  of  Utah, 
originally  the  University  of  Deseret,  which  received  its  charter 
in  February,  1850.  In  January,  1851,  the  General  Assembly 
chartered  the  cities  of  Salt  Lake,  Ogden,  Provo,  Manti,  and 
Parowan.  The  Legislature  forbade  by  law  the  sale  or  gift  of 

*Efforts  were  made  to  civilize  the  captured  squaws  and  papooses, 
whose  male  protectors  had  fallen,  but  without  avail.  They  lived  with 
the  settlers  during  the  winter,  and  then  sought  their  native  wilds. 


70     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

arms,  ammunition  or  liquor  to  the  Indians.  Liquor  was  man- 
ufactured and  sold  for  medical  and  domestic  uses,  but  saloons 
and  all  dens  of  vice  were  prohibited.  The  Government  of  the 
State  of  Deseret  continued  until  April,  1851,  when  it  was 
merged  into  the  Government  of  the  Territory  of  Utah. 


VIII. 

THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH. 

1850-1853. 

Boundary  Lines. — Congress  denied  Deseret's  prayer  for 
Statehood,  and  organized  the  Territory  of  Utah;  California  at 
the  same  time  being  admitted  into  the  Union.  Utah  was 
bounded  on  the  west  by  the  State  of  California,  on  the  north 
by  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  on  the  east  by  the  summit  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  on  the  south  by  the  thirty-seventh  par- 
allel of  north  latitude.  This  cut  off  the  strip  of  seacoast  in- 
cluded in  the  proposed  State  of  Deseret,  but  still  left  the  Terri- 
tory an  area  of  225,000  square  miles.  The  character  of  the 
country  thus  enclosed  caused  Senator  Seddon,  of  Virginia,  to 
remark  that  it  "had  been  abandoned  to  the  Mormons  for  its 
worthlessness." 

Colonel  Babbitt,  delegate  and  proposed  representative 
from  the  State  of  Deseret,  on  arriving  at  the  City  of  Washing- 
ton late  in  1849,  had  sought  the  earliest  opportunity  to  deliver 
the  public  documents  of  which  he  was  the  bearer.  The  State 
Constitution  and  memorial  for  admission  were  placed  in  the 
hands  of  Senator  Douglas,  who  presented  them  in  the  upper 
house  of  Congress  during  December.  Later  they  were  referred 
to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Territories.  About  the  same  time 
a  memorial  signed  by  William  Smith,  Isaac  Sheen,  and  other 
apostate  "Mormons"  was  submitted  to  that  body.  This  mem- 
orial set  up  the  claim  that  its  signers  were  the  legitimate  pres- 
idents of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  and 
asserted  that  fifteen  hundred  "Mormons,"  prior  to  the  exodus 
from  Nauvoo,  had  sworn  an  oath  of  eternal  hostility  to  the 
United  States  Government. 

Opposition  to  Statehood. — The  Committee  on  Elections  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  after  considering  Colonel  Bab- 
bitt's application  for  a  seat  in  that  body,  reported  a  resolution 
containing  this  sentence :  "The  admission  of  Mr.  Babbitt 
would  be  a  quasi  recognition  of  the  legal  existence  of  the  State 
of  Deseret;  and  no  act  should  be  done  by  this  body  which, 
even  by  imputation,  may  give  force  and  vitality  to  a  political 
organization  extra-constitutional  and  independent  of  the  -laws 
of  the  United  States."  The  House  adopted  the  resolution  by 
a  majority  vote,  and  Colonel  Babbitt  was  denied  admission. 

Creation  of  the  Territory. — The  Senate,  after  a  delay  of 
nearly  nine  months,  passed  a  bill  providing  for  the  organiza- 


72     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


tion  of  the  Territory  of  Utah.  Two  days  later  this  bill  passed 
the  House,  and  was  approved  by  President  Millard  Fillmore. 
It  was  signed  by  him  on  the  9th  of  September,  1850,  but  the 

news  did  not  reach  Salt  Lake  City 
until  the  27th  of  January,  1851. 
Even  then  it  did  not  come  direct- 
ly or  in  an  official  way,  but  hav- 
ing been  published  in  Eastern  pa- 
pers and  carried  across  the  Isth- 
mus and  up^  to  San  Francisco, 
along  with  the  tidings  of  Cali- 
fornia's admission,  it  was  brought 
to  Utah  by  a  returning  mission- 
ary.* 

Federal  Appointees. — While 
disappointed  at  the  denial  of  their 
petition,  and  feeling  that  Con- 
gress had  been  partial  to  the  peo- 
ple of  California,  the  citizens  of 
Utah  made  the  best  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  were  not  without  feel- 
ings of  gratitude  toward  the  Ad- 
ministration, for  its  consideration 
in  the  matter  of  Federal  ap- 
pointees. Brigham  Young,  Governor  of  Deseret  by  popular 
vote,  was  now  Governor  of  Utah  by  presidential  appointment; 
and  three  other  prominent  "Mormons"  were  likewise  com- 
missioned to  represent  the  United  States  in  this  Territory. 
The  full  list  of  the  Federal  officers  was  as  follows :  Brigham 
Young,  Governor;  Joseph  Buffington,  Chief  Justice;  Perry  E. 
Brocchus  and  Zerubbabel  Snow,  Associate  Justices;  Seth  M. 
Blair,  Attorney;  and  Joseph  L.  Heywood,  Marshal.  Three 
Indian  agents  were  also  named — Jacob  H.  Holman,  Henry  R, 
Day,  and  Stephen  B.  Rose. 

The  Governor,  the  Attorney,  and  the  Marshal  were  resi- 
dents of  Salt  Lake  City.  Judge  Snow  was  living  in  Ohio,  but 
had  relatives  in  Utah.  Secretary  Harris  was  from  Vermont, 
and  Judge  Brocchus  from  Alabama.  Chief  Justice  Buffing- 
ton,  a  Pennsylvanian,  declined  his  appointment,  and  Lemuel 
G.  Brandebury,  of  the  same  State,  was  appointed  in  his  stead. 


PRESIDENT  FILLMORE. 


*That  missionary  was  Henry  E.  Gibson.  He  had  gone  west  with 
Charles  C.  Rich,  George  Q.  Cannon  and  others,  in  the  autumn  of  1849. 
They  were  the  first  Utah  men  to  pass  over  "The  Southern  Route,"  the 
trail  now  covered  by  the  San  Pedro  Los  Angeles  and  Salt  Lake  Rail- 
road. Gibson  brought  to  Salt  Lake  City  a  copy  of  the  New  York  Trib- 
une, containing  a  list  of  President  Fillmore's  appointments  for  this 
Territory. 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  73 

The  Indian  agents  were  also  from  outside  the  Territory.  All 
these  officers — four  "Mormons"  and  six  "Gentiles" — were 
nominated  soon  after  the  passage  of  the  Organic  Act.  Gover- 
nor Young's  commission,  signed  by  President  Fillmore  and 
attested  by  Daniel  Webster,  Secretary  of  State,  was  dated 
September  28,  1850.* 

State  and  Territorial  Government. — Americans  love  to 
govern  themselves.  For  that  reason  the  founders  of  Utah 
preferred  a  State  to  a  Territorial  form  of  government,  though 
the  cost  of  maintaining  it  would  have  been  greater. f  The  peo- 


*The  Governor,  Secretary,  Judges,  Attorney,  and  Marshal  were  to 
hold  office  for  four  years  and  until  their  successors  were  elected  and 
qualified,  unless  sooner  removed  by  the  power  that  appointed  them. 
Each  officer,  before  beginning  his  labors,  was  required  to  take  oath  or 
affirmation  before  a  magistrate,  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  faithfully  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office.  All  acts 
of  the  Legislature  had  to  receive  the  approving  signature  of  the  Gov- 
ernor before  going  into  effect  as  laws.  The  Governor  held  authority 
to  commission  all  officers  appointed  under  those  laws,  and  it  was  his 
duty,  as  Chief  Executive  of  the  Territory,  to  see  that  the  laws  were  en- 
forced and  justice  administered.  He  also  had  power  to-  grant  pardons 
and  reprieves.  He  was  Commander-in- Chief  of  the  Militia,  and  Super- 
intendent of  Indian  Affairs.  The  duty  of  the  Secretary  was  to  keep  a 
record  of  all  laws  and  proceedings  of  the  Legislature,  all  official  acts 
and  proceedings  of  the  Governor,  and  to  send  copies  of  the  same  an- 
nually to  the  President  and  to  Congress.  As  usual  in  the  case  of  Ter- 
ritories, Congress  reserved  the  right  to  disapprove  and  annul  any  act 
passed  by  the  Legislature  and  approved  by  the  Governor.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  the  Governor,  the  Secretary  could  perform  all  the  duties  of 
the  Executive  office. 

Utah  was  divided  into  three  judicial  districts,  and  over  each  a  Fed- 
eral Judge  was  to  preside  and  hold  court  therein;  the  three  judges  to 
constitute  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  Territory.  The  Attorney  and  the 
Marshal  were  to  attend  to  all  United  States  business  in  or  pertaining 
to  the  District  and  Supreme  Courts.  There  were  also  probate  courts, 
one  for  each  county,  and  lesser  tribunals  presided  over  by  justices  of 
the  peace. 

The  Governor's  salary  was  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  with  an 
additional  one  thousand  dollars  for  his  services  in  the  Indian  Depart- 
ment. He  was  also  allowed  one  thousand  dollars  annually  for  contin- 
gent expenses  of  the  Territory.  The  Secretary  and  the  three  Judges 
were  each  to  receive  eighteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  while  the  Attor- 
ney and  the  Marshal,  in  addition  to  their  small  salaries,  were  to  be  paid 
fees  for  services  rendered.  The  Secretary  had  at  his  disposal  money  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  Legislature,  which  was  composed  of  thirteen 
councilors  and  twenty-six  representatives,  each  of  whom  was  to  re- 
ceive three  dollars  a  day,  with  mileage,  during  attendance  at  the  ses- 
sions. These  were  to  be  held  annually,  and  each  was  to  be  limited  to 
forty  days. 

tA  State  pays  its  own  expenses,  including  the  salaries  of  its  offi- 
cers; while  in  a  Territory  the  officers,  appointed  by  the  President,  draw 
their  salaries  from  the  National  Treasury.  The  General  Government 
also  defrays  the  expenses  of  the  Territorial  Legislature,  but  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Utah 'could  prevent  any  act  of  the  Legislature  from  becoming 
a  law,  by  withholding  from  it  his  signature.  The  power  so  to  nullify 


74     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

pie  of  Deseret  were  denied  Statehood  because  Congress 
deemed  them  unprepared  to  assume  its  rsponsibilities.  The 
reason,  more  plainly  stated,  was  the  intense  prejudice  exist- 
ing against  the  "Mormon"  people  and  their  religion. 

Public  Sentiment  Over  Governor  Young's  Appointment — 
His  Installation. — The  selection  of  Brigham  Young  for  Gov- 
ernor was  much  criticised  in  many  places,  but  it  gave  gen- 
eral satisfaction  in  Utah.  The  "Gentiles"  then  in  the  Ter- 
ritory were  among  those  who  commended  the  appointment. 
Captain  Stansbury  regarded  it  as  "a  measure  dictated  alike  by 
justice  and  by  sound  policy."  The  President's  act  won  for  him 
the  gratitude  of  the  entire  "Mormon"  community.* 

Governor  Young  was  absent  when  the  news  of  his  ap- 
pointment reached  Salt  Lake  City,  but  next  day,  while  return- 
ing from  a  tour  of  the  northern  settlements,  he  was  met  near 
Farmington  by  General  Wells,  who  saluted  him  as  Governor 
of  Utah  and  at  the  head  of  a  company  of  cavalry  escorted  him 
to  the  city,  amid  firing  of  cannon  and  other  demonstrations 
of  rejoicing.  He  took  the  oath  of  office  on  the  3rd  of  February, 
before  the  Chief  Justice  of  Deseret. 

Provisional  Government  Dissolved. — On  the  26th  of 
March,  Governor  Young  addressed  a  special  message  to  the 
General  Assembly,  suggesting  such  arrangements  as  would 

the  acts  of  the  people's  representatives,  was  called  the  absolute  veto 
power.  Needless  to  say  it  was  hateful  to  the  majority  of  the  citizens. 
In  a  State,  if  two-thirds  of  each  branch  of  the  Legislative  Assembly 
vote  to  pass  an  act  over  the  Governor's  veto,  it  then  becomes  a  law 
without  his  signature.  A  State  may  send  two  Senators  and  one  or 
more  Representatives  to  Congress.  Formerly  these  Senators  were 
chosen  by  the  Legislature,  and  the  Representatives  by  the  citizens  at 
large;  the  number  of  representatives  being  determined  by  population. 
Now  the  United  States  Senators  are  elected  by  the  peoole.  A  Terri- 
tory may  send  a  Delegate  to  Congress,  who  sits  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, but  has  no  vote,  and  can  speak  only  by  permission  of  the 
other  members,  even  upon  questions  affecting  the  Territory  from 
which  he  comes.  Statehood  is  usually  given  to  the  people  requesting 
it  when  they  become  numerous  and  wealthy  enough  to  support  the 
higher  form  of  government. 

*President  Fillmore  had  been  influenced  in  his  choice  for  Governor 
by  Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane,  to  whom  he  referred,  after  his  act  was 
questioned,  for  explanations  and  the  refutation  of  certain  charges 
made  against  Brigham  Young.  The  Colonel  reiterated  his  former  state- 
ment of  the  Governor's  "excellent  capacity,  energy  and  integrity,"  and 
testified  also  to  his  patriotism.  In  this  connection  he  mentioned  the 
enlistment  of  the  Mormon  Battalion,  and  said  to  the  Chief  Magistrate: 
"It  happens  felicitously  enough  for  the  purpose  of  the  accusation  be- 
fore you,  that  Brigham  Young  was  the  man  of  all  others  whose  in- 
fluence carried  that  measure  through  with  the  Church.  It  was  his 
American  flag  that  was  brought  out  to  float  over  those  hills  for  the  first 
time;  his  drums  beat,  and  his  brave  American  speeches  rang  through 
the  hearts  of  the  people." 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  75 

render  convenient  a  transition  from  the  Provisional  to  the 
Territorial  form  of  government.  Acting  promptly  upon  this 
suggestion,  the  Assembly,  in  joint  session,  passed  a  resolu- 
tion appointing  the  5th  of  April  as  the  time  for  the  change  to 
go  into  effect.*  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  Provisional 
Government  "held  over,"  until  the  machinery  of  the  Terri- 
torial Government  got  into  full  operation,  which  was  later  in 
the  year. 

First  Territorial  Election — Technical  Irregularities. — This 
change  made  desirable  the  early  election  of  the  Territorial 
Legislature.  It  was  necessary,  also,  to  choose  the  Delegate  to 
Congress  in  time  to  enable  him  to  cross  the  plains  before  the 
winter  storms  set  in.  Governor  Young,  prior  to  the  election, 
caused  "a  census  or  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  sev- 
eral counties  and  districts  of  the  Territory  to  be  taken;"  a 
work  completed  on  the  26th  of  June.  The  returns,  which  were 
from  Great  Salt  Lake,  Davis,  Weber,  Utah,  Sanpete,  Iron, 

*The  resolution,  which  was  passed  March  28,  1851,  read  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Be  it  resolved  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Deseret 

"1.  That  we  cheerfully  and  cordially  accept  the  legislation  of  Con- 
gress in  the  Act  to  estajblish  a  Territorial  Government  for  Utah. 

"2.  That  we  welcome  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States — the 
legacy  of  our  fathers — over  this  Territory. 

"3.  That  all  officers  under  the  Provisional  State  Government  of 
Deseret  are  hereby  requested  to  furnish  unto  their  successors  in  office 
every  facility  in  their  power,  by  returning  and  delivering  unto  them 
public  documents,  laws,  ordinances,  and  dockets,  that  may  or  can  be 
of  any  use  or  benefit  to  their  said  successors  in  office. 

"4.  That  Union  Square,  in  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  be  devoted  for 
the  use  of  public  buildings  of  said  Territory. 

"5.  That  Governor  B.  Young  be  our  agent  to  make  drafts  upon 
the  treasury  of  the  United  States  for  the  amount  appropriated  for  said 
buildings,  and  to  take  such  other  measures  as  he  shall  deem  proper  for 
their  immediate  erection. 

"6.  That  we  appoint  an  architect  to  draft  designs,  and  a  commit- 
tee of  one,  to  superintend  the  erection  of  said  buildings. 

"7.  That  Truman  O.  Angell,  of  said  city,  be  said  architect,  and 
Daniel  H.  Wells,  of  said  city,  the  committee;  and  that  they  proceed 
immediately  to  the  designing  and  erection  of  said  buildings. 

"8.  That,  whereas,  the  State  House  in  Great  Salt  Lake  City  hav- 
ing been  originally  designed  for  a  "Council  House,"  and  erected  by  and 
at  the  expense  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  for 
the  purpose,  as  well  as  to  accommodate  the  Provisional  Government; 
that  we  do  now  relinquish  unto  said  Church  the  aforesaid  building, 
tendering  unto  them  our  thanks  for  the  free  use  thereof  during  the 
past  session. 

"9.  That  we  fix  upon  Saturday,  the  fifth  day  of  April  next,  for  the 
adjustment  and  final  dissolving  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State 
of  Deseret. 

"H.  C.  Kimball,  President  of  the  Council. 
"J.  M.  Grant,  Speaker  of  the  House." 


76     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  Tooele  Counties,  and  from  Green  River  Precinct,  gave  a 
total  of  11,354  souls,  excluding  Indians,  and  including  twelve 
colored  free  males  and  an  equal  number  of  colored  free  fe- 
males, who  were  passing  through  the  Territory. 

The  Governor  next  apportioned  the  membership  of  the 
Council  and  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  issued  a  proc- 
lamation appointing  Monday,  August  4th,  1851,  as  the  time 
for  holding  the  election.  It  was  held  accordingly.* 

These  proceedings  were  somewhat  irregular.  The  enu- 
meration of  inhabitants  was  not  returned  upon  regular  census 
blanks,  which  had  not  arrived  from  Washington;  and  the 
Governor's  proclamation  apportioning  the  Legislative  repre- 
sentation, was  without  the  signature  and  seal  of  the  Secre- 

t tary,  who  had  not  yet  appeared 

upon  the  scene.  But  the  ac- 
tion taken  was  deemed  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  prevent  fur- 
ther delay:  the  greater  part  of 
a  year  having  gone  by  already, 
since  the  Territory  was  organ- 
ized and  its  Federal  officers 
mmy  i  appointed. 

-^  .  Delegate    Bernhisel.— The 

1  man  chosen  to  represent  Utah 
in  Congress  was  Dr.  John  M. 
Bernhisel,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  a 
gentleman  of  culture,  well 
versed  in  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment, and  a  graduate  from 
the  medical  department  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania. 
While  there  he  had  numbered 
among  his  classmates  and  per- 
sonal friends,  Simon  Cameron, 
JOHN  M.  BERNHISEL.  the  senior  United  States  Sen- 

ator from  Pennsylvania,  Bernhisel's  native  State.  He  was  also 
intimately  acquainted  with  Thaddeus  Stevens  and  other  states- 
men. In  national  politics  Dr.  Bernhisel  was  a  Whig,  but  be- 

*Great  Salt  Lake  County  elected  six  Councilors  and  thirteen  Rep- 
resentatives; Utah  County,  two  Councilors  and  three  Representatives; 
Weber  County,  two  Councilors  and  three  Representatives;  Davis 
County,  one  Councilor  and  three  Representatives;  Iron  County,  one 
Councilor  and  two  Representatives;  Sanpete  County,  one  Councilor 
and  one  Representative;  Tooele  County,  one  Representative.  Juab 
County  had  no  representation,  being  still  unoccupied.  The  first 
settler  in  that  part  was  Joseph  L.  Heywood,  who  founded  Salt  Creek 
(Nephi)  in  September,  1851. 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  77 

came  Delegate  by  the  united  vote  of  the  people,  Utah  having 
no  political  parties  at  that  time. 

Federal  Officers  from  the  East — Assignments. — Of  the 
Federal  officers  from  the  East,  the  first  to  arrive  in  the  Terri- 
tory was  Chief  Justice  Brandebury,  who  reached  Salt  Lake 
City  on  the  7th  of  June,  nearly  two  months  before  the  election. 
A  ball  and  supper  were  given  in  his  honor  at  the  Warm 
Springs  Building,  a  newly  erected  amusement  hall  in  the  north- 
ern suburb  of  the  town.  Secretary  Harris  and  Judge  Snowr 
came  in  the  latter  part  of  July,  and  Judge  Brocchus  about  the 
middle  of  August.  The  latter,  with  Orson  Hyde  and  others, 
had  been  waylaid  and  robbed  by  Pawnee  Indians  while  cross- 
ing the  plains.  Secretary  Harris  brought  with  him  from  Wash- 
ington the  sum  of  $24,000,  appropriated  by  Congress  for  the 
Utah  Legislature;  and  Colonel  Babbitt,  who  returned  at  the 
same  time,  brought  $20,000,  the  Congressional  appropriation 
for  the  erection  of  public  buildings  in  the  Territory. 

Governor  Young,  on  the  8th  of  August,  assigned  the  three 
Judges  to  their  respective  districts.  Chief  Justice  Brandebury 
was  given  the  First  District,  comprising  Salt  Lake  and  Tooele 
counties,  with  the  adjacent  country  east  and  west  to  the  bound- 
aries of  the  Territory;  Associate  Justice  Snow  the  Second  Dis- 
trict, comprising  Davis  and  Weber  counties,  with  adjacent 
country  east,  west  and  north ;  and  Associate  Justice  Brocchus 
the  Third  District,  embracing  the  counties  of  Utah,  Sanpete 
and  Iron,  with  adjacent  parts  east,  west,  and  south.  Al- 
ready, as  Indian  Superintendent,  the  Governor  had  divided  the 
Territory  into  three  agencies,  Parowan,  Pauvan,  and  Uintah, 
assigning  to  them  severally  Chief  Agent  Holman  and  Sub- 
Agents  Day  and  Rose. 

The  Territorial  Legislature. — The  Legislative  Assembly 
of  the  Territory  of  Utah  convened  in  its  first  session  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  on  the  22nd  of  September,  1851.  The  personnel  was 
as  follows :  Members  of  the  Council :  Heber  C.  Kimball,  Wil- 
lard  Richards,  Daniel  H.  Wells,  Jedediah  M.  Grant,  Ezra  T. 
Benson,  Orson  Spencer,  John  S.  Fullmer,  Lorin  Farr,  Charles 
R.  Dana,  Alexander  Williams,  Aaron  Johnson,  Isaac  Morley, 
George  A.  Smith.  Members  of  the  House:  Wilford  Wood- 
ruff, David  Fullmer,  Daniel  Spencer,  Willard  Snow,  William 
W.  Phelps,  Albert  P.  Rockwood,  Nathaniel  H.  Felt,  Edwin  D. 
Woolley,  Phinehas  Richards,  Joseph  Young,  Henry  G.  Sher- 
wood, Benjamin  F.  Johnson,  Hosea  Stout,  Andrew  Lam- 
oreaux,  John  Stoker,  William  Kay,  James  Brown,  David  B. 
Dille,  James  G.  Browning,  John  Rowberry,  David  Evans,' Wil- 
liam Miller,  Levi  W.  Hancock,  Charles  Shumway,  Elisha 
Groves,  and  George  Brimhall.  Two  of  the  Councilors,  Ezra  T. 
Benson  and  Jedediah  M.  Grant,  resigned  later  in  September  to 


78     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

go  East,  and  Orson  Pratt  and  Edward  Hunter  were  elected  on 
the  15th  of  November  to  take  their  places.  At  the  same  time 
John  Brown  succeeded  Willard  Snow  as  a  Representative. 

The  Legislature  organized  by  electing  Willard  Richards 
President  of  the  Council,  and  William  W.  Phelps  Speaker  of 
the  House.  A  joint  resolution,  adopted  on  the  4th  of  October, 
declared  all  laws  of  the  State  of  Deseret,  such  as  did  not  con- 
flict with  the  Organic  Act,  to  be  of  full  force  and  effect  in  the 
Territory  of  Utah.  This  action  of  the  Legislature  preserved 
the  charters  granted  to  the  several  cities  and  to  the  University 
of  Deseret. 

Location  of  the  Capital. — It  had  been  designed  to  locate 
the  Territorial  capital  at  Salt  Lake  City ;  Union  Square  having 


STATE  HOUSE  AT  FILLMORE.* 

been  offered  as  a  site  for  the  proposed  public  buildings.  But 
now  it  was  decided  to  choose  a  more  central  location ;  and  this 
led  to  the  creation  of  the  County  of  Millard  and  the  City  of 
Fillmore,  both  named  in  honor  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  Preliminary  to  that  event,  Anson  Call  was  sent  with  a 


*This  State  House  was  begun,  but  never  completed.  The  Legisla- 
ture held  but  one  full  session  at  Fillmore  (1855-1856).  Several  suc- 
ceeding Legislatures  met  there  in  order  to  conform  to  the  law,  but 
immediately  adjourned  to  Salt  Lake  City,  where  they  could  do  their 
work  more  conveniently.  Finally  the  capital  was  legally  moved  to  this 
city.  Its  location  in  Central  Utah  was  found  to  be  a  mistake,  the 
greater  part  of  the  population  being  in  the  northern  counties. 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  79 

company  to  Chalk  Creek,  in  Pauvan  Valley,  where,  on  the 
29th  of  October,  under  the  direction  of  Governor  Young  and  a 
committee  appointed  by  the  Legislature,  the  capital  was  laid 
out  and  a  site  for  the  State  House  selected. 

Discontented  Officials. — Judge  Brocchus,  if  report  did  not 
belie  him,  surveyed  his  duties  in  Utah  a  disappointed  man. 
It  was  believed  and  asserted  that  he  desired  to  represent  the 
Territory  in  Congress,  and  was  chagrined  at  learning,  while  on 
the  way  to  Salt  Lake  City,  that  the  election  for  Delegate  had 
already  taken  place.  He  did  not  even  visit  his  district,  and 
from  the  first  gave  evidence  of  dissatisfaction. 

Chief  Justice  Brandebury  and  Secretary  Harris  were  in 
sympathy  with  Brocchus.  The  three  had  been  but  a  short  time 
in  Utah  when  they  announced  their  intention  of  returning  to 
the  East.  They  complained  of  the  smallness  of  their  salaries, 
which  Congress  had  fixed  in  the  Organic  Act.  An  effort  was 
made  to  remove  this  cause  of  discontent;  a  petition  asking  for 
an  increase  in  those  salaries  being  signed  by  Governor  Young 
and  other  citizens  and  sent  to  Washington.  Still  the  Judges 
and  the  Secretary  adhered  to  their  determination.  Governor 
Young  then  called  upon  them  in  person,  expressing  regret 
over  their  intended  departure,  and  endeavoring  to  dissuade 
them  from  their  purpose ;  but  without  avail.  They  were  get- 
ting ready  to  leave,  and  Indian  Agent  Day  was  preparing  to 
go  with  them. 

Judge  Brocchus  and  Governor  Young. — Before  leaving 
Utah,  Judge  Brocchus,  in  a  public  meeting,  took  occasion  to 
criticize  conditions  in  the  Territory,  and  to  censure  some  of  the 
leading  men  for  utterances  construed  by  him  as  unfriendly  to 
the  Federal  Government.  His  most  offensive  remark  was 
one  reflecting  upon  the  virtue  of  the  women  of  the  commu- 
nity. This  scurrilous  fling  awoke  a  storm  of  indignation.  The 
congregation  arose  en  masse,  and  the  orator,  unable  to  make 
himself  heard  above  the  din  he  had  created,  took  his  seat.  Gov- 
ernor Young  calmed  the  tumult  and  answered,  denying  that 
the  people  of  Utah  were  unfriendly  to  the  Government,  and 
affirming  their  loyalty  and  devotion  to  American  principles. 
As  President  of  the  Church,  and  in  behalf  of  the  women  as- 
sailed, he  severely  reprimanded  the  fault-finding  magistrate, 
and  informed  him  that  he  had  never  had  the  honor  of  address- 
ing a  more  virtuous  assemblage.* 

*Judge  Brocchus  had  requested  from  President  Young  the  privi- 
lege of  addressing  this  meeting,  which  was  a  session  of  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  held  in  the  "Old  Bowery,"  on 
Temple  Block.  Judge  Brandebury  and  Secretary  Harris  were  also  pres- 
ent and  had  seats  upon  the  stand.  Brocchus,  according  to  his  own 
statement,  was  "respectfully  and  honorably  introduced"  by  the  "Mor- 


80     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

^   I 

In  a  correspondence  that  ensued,  Judge  Brocchus  dis- 
claimed any  intent  to  insult  the  women  of  Utah,  and  affirmed 
that  he  had  said  nothing  "deserving  the  censure  of  a  just- 
minded  person."  President  Young,  in  reply,  told  him  that  he 
had  insulted  not  only  the  women,  but  the  men,  and  in  charg- 
ing them  with  "a  spirit  of  defection  toward  the  Government," 
he  was  either  "profoundly  ignorant  or  wilfully  wicked."  That 
his  speech  had  been  deliberately  planned,  the  Judge  admitted, 
and  that  it  was  worded  with  a  view  to  its  effect  in  the  East, 
rather  than  in  Utah,  was  the  general  belief  of  those  who 
heard  him. 

Secretary  and  Legislature. — Learning  that  Secretary  Har- 
ris intended  to  take  with  him  the  funds  appropriated  by  Con- 
gress for  the  Legislature,  also  the  Territorial  seal,  with  various 
records  and  documents,  Governor  Young  endeavored  to  pre- 
vent what  he  considered  an  illegal  act  on  the  part  of  that  func- 
tionary. Summoning  the  Legislature,  he  laid  the  facts  before 
them,  and  a  resolution  was  passed  directing  the  United  States 
Marshal  to  take  into  custody  all  Government  funds  and  prop- 
erty in  charge  of  the  Secretary.  The  Marshal  was  also  in- 
structed to  present  to  him  for  payment  an  order  for  five  hun- 
dred dollars,  covering  the  incidental  expenses  of  the  Assembly. 

Mr.  Harris  refused  to  honor  these  requisitions.  He  con- 
tended that  the  election  of  the  Legislature  was  illegal,  and 
claimed  to  have  private  instructions  not  to  pay  out  any  funds, 
unless  such  action  were  strictly  legal  according  to  his  own 
judgment.  The  Judges,  when  appealed  to,  held  that  the  Sec- 
retary was  amenable  only  to  the  United  States  Government 
for  the  manner  in  which  he  discharged  his  duties.  It  trans- 
pired that  Judges  Brandebury  and  Brocchus  had  organized  the 
Supreme  Court  and  held  a  session,  without  waiting  for  the 
Governor  and  Legislature  to  fix  time  and  place,  and  had 
granted  an  injunction  to  prevent  any  one  acting  under  the  au- 


mon"  leader.  His  insult  to  the  women  was  couched  in  the  following 
language:  "I  have  a  commission  from  the  Washington  Monument  As- 
sociation, to  ask  of  you  a  block  of  marble  as  the  test  of  your  loyalty  to 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  But  in  order  for  you  to  do  it 
acceptably  you  must  become  virtuous,  and  teach  your  daughters  to  be- 
come virtuous,  or  your  offering  had  better  remain  in  the  bosom  of  your 
native  mountains." 

The  people  of  Utah  had  not  waited  for  the  coming  of  Judge  Broc- 
chus, before  taking  appropriate  action  in  this  matter.  In  February, 
1851,  before  the  dissolution  of  the  Provisional  Government,  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  had  passed  a  resolution  providing  that  a  block  of  native 
marble  be  prepared  for  the  purpose  indicated,  and  in  compliance  with 
that  resolution,  a  block  of  native  oolite  (no  marble  being  quarried  here 
that  early)  was  suitably  carved  and  lettered  by  William  Ward,  a  local 
sculptor,  and  forwarded  to  the  national  capital,  as  Utah's  contribution 
to  the  Washington  Monument. 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  81 

thority  of  the  body  "purporting  to  be  the  Legislative  Assem- 
bly of  the  Territory"  from  interfering  with  said  funds  and 
property.  From  this  decision  Judge  Snow  dissented,  on  the 
ground  that  the  session  was  illegal. 

Governor  Young  to  President  Fillmore. — In  anticipation 
of  an  unfriendly  report  to  the  national  authorities,  Governor 
Young,  the  day  after  the  departure  of  the  two  Judges  and  the 
Secretary,  addressed  a  communication  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  in  which  his  own  course  as  Executive  and  the 
conduct  of  the  retiring  officers  were  set  forth  in  detail.  He 
assured  the  President  that  he  intended  to  discharge  faithfully 
every  duty  of  his  office,  and  would  take  the  liberty  of  report- 
ing, in  behalf  of  the  absent  Secretary,  the  acts  and  doings  of 
the  Legislative  Assembly,  which  was  still  in  session.  In  con- 
clusion he  stated  that  he  would  receive  gratefully  any  instruc- 
tions that  the  Chief  Magistrate  might  be  pleased  to  give.* 

Charges  of  Sedition  and  Polygamy — The  Grant  Letters.— 
The  returning  Judges  and  Secretary,  on  arriving  in  Washing- 

*The  Governor's  communication  to  the  President  was  dated  Sep- 
tember 29,  1851.  Answering  objections  raised  by -the  Secretary  relative 
to  the  recent  election,  he  maintained  that  the  enumeration  of  inhabit- 
ants, made  without  the  use  of  regular  census  blanks,  had  met  the  re- 
quirements of  the  Organic  Act,  and  explained  that  the  reason  why  the 
Governor's  proclamation  apportioning  the  representation  did  not  re- 
ceive the  signature  and  seal  of  the  Secretary,  was  because  that  officer 
had  not  then  arrived,  and  it  was  imperative  that  matters  should  pro- 
ceed without  further  delay.  Then  followed  this  paragraph: 

"It  has  been  and  is  said  of  myself  and  of  the  people  over  whom  I 
have  the  honor  to  preside,  that  they  frequently  indulge  in  strictures 
upon  the  acts  of  men  who  are  entrusted  with  Governmental  affairs,  and 
that  the  Government  itself  does  not  wholly  escape.  Now,  sir,  I  will 
simply  state  what  I  know  to  be  true.  *  No  people  exist  who 

are  more  friendly  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  than  the  peo- 
ple of  this  Territory.  The  Constitution  they  revere,  the  laws  they 
seek  to  honor.  But  the  non-execution  of  those  laws,  in  .times  past,  for 
our  protection,  and  the  abuse  of  power  in  the  hands  of  those  entrusted 
therewith,  *  *  *  for  this  we  have  cause  of  complaint.  *  *  * 
The  foregoing  is  a  case  in  point.  What  good  and  substantial  reason 
can  be  given  that  the  people  of  this  Territory  should  be  deprived,  for 
probably  nearly  a  year  to  come,  of  a  Supreme  Court,  of  the  official  seal, 
of  a  Secretary  of  State,  of  the  official  publication  of  the  laws,  and  other 
matters  pertaining  to  the  office  of  Secretary?  Is  it  true  that  officers 
coming  here  by  virtue  of  an  appointment  by  the  President,  have  private 
instructions  that  so  far  control  their  actions  as  to  induce  the  belief  that 
their  main  object  is  not  the  strict  and  legal  performance  of  their  re- 
spective duties,  but  rather  to  watch  for  iniquity,  to  catch  at  shadows, 
and  make  a  man  'an  offender  for  a  word'?  *  *  *  I  cannot  conceive 
that  it  can  or  ought  to  be  in  the  power  of  any  subordinate  officer  to 
subvert  or  even  retard  for  any  length  of  time  the  ordinary  motion  of 
the  wheels  of  Government.  *  *  *  So  far  as  the  public  interests  are 
concerned,  it  would  have  been  quite  as  well  if  neither  of  these  gentle- 
men (Judges  Brandebury  and  Brocchus)  or  Mr.  Harris  had  ever  trou- 
bled themselves  to  cross  the  plains." 


82     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


ton,  reported  that  they  had  been  "compelled  to  leave  Utah  on 
account  of  the  lawless  acts  and  seditious  tendencies  of  Brig- 
ham  Young  and  the  majority  of  the  residents."  They  charged 
Governor  Young  with  a  waste  of  public  funds,  meaning  by  this 
the  proposed  erection  of  the  State  House  at  Fillmore.  They 
also  referred  to  the  existence  of  polygamy  (plural  marriage) 
in  Utah,  a  fact  that  had  given  the  cue  to  Judge  Brocchus,  when 
he  offered  his  public  insult  to  the  women  of  the  "Mormon" 
community. 

The  communication  of  the  three  officials  appeared  in  the 
New  York  Herald,  January  10,  1852,  and  was  offset  by  a  series 
of  letters  published,  one  in  the  Herald,  and  all  in  a  pamphlet 
widely  circulated,  over  the  signature  of  Jedediah  M.  Grant, 
Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City.  Mayor  Grant  had  been  sent  East 
to  help  Dr.  Bernhisel  counteract  the  efforts  of  the  complaining 
officials  at  the  seat  of  Government.  The  Grant  letters  were 
largely  the  product  of  the  caustic  and  brilliant  pen  of  Colonel 
Thomas  L.  Kane.  Secretary  Webster  directed  the  "runaways" 
to  return  to  their  posts,  or  else  resign.  They  chose  the  latter 
course. 

New  Appointments  Requested. — The  Utah  Legislature 
petitioned  the  Federal  Government  to  fill  the  vacancies  caused 
by  these  resignations,  and  requested  that  the  ne,w  appointees 
be  residents  of  Utah,  and  that  they  be  selected  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. Pending  action  upon  the 
petition,  Governor  Young  ap- 
pointed Willard  Richards  Sec- 
retary of  Utah,  pro  tern. 

Associate  Justice  Snow — 
Utah's  First  Federal  Court.— 
To  meet  in  some  degree  the 
emergency  that  had  arisen, 
Judge  Snow  was  authorized  by 
the  Legislature  to  hold  court  in 
all  the  districts.  At  the  same 
time  certain  changes  were 
made  in  the  boundaries  of 
those  districts.  Sessions  of 
court  were  to  be  held  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  Provo,  Manti,  Fill- 
more  and  Parowan;  these  pro- 
visions to  remain  in  force  until 
the  President  and  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  who  were  duly 
informed  of  all  that  was  done, 
should  supply  a  full  bench  of 


JUDGE   SNOW. 


the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory. 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  83 

The  first  United  States  Court  ever  held  in  Utah  was 
opened  by  Judge  Zerubbabel  Snow  at  Salt  Lake  City.  He  ex- 
amined and  passed  upon  the  proceedings  of  the  Governor,  in 
calling  the  Legislature,  holding  them  to  be  legal,  though  some- 
what informal.  His  decision  was  reported  to  and  sustained  by 
the  United  States  Department  of  State,  which  also  sanctioned 
the  appointment  of  a  temporary  Secretary.  The  bills  signed 
by  Mr.  Richards,  as  well  as  his  salary  for  services  in  that  ca- 
pacity, were  allowed  and  paid  by  the  Government.* 

New  Counties — Probate  Courts  and  their  Jurisdiction. — 
During  the  winter  of  1851-1852,  the  Legislature  created  the 
counties  of  Iron  and  Washington,  and  provided  for  the  com- 
plete organization  of  these  and  the  counties  previously  exist- 
ing.! In  addition  to  the  powers  usually  possessed  by  probate 
courts,  such  as  the  settlement  of  estates  and  the  guardianship 
of  minors,  those  now  organized  were  given  general  civil  and 
criminal  jurisdiction,  making  them  almost  equal  with  the  dis- 
trict courts,  to  which,  however,  there  was  the  right  of  appeal. 
This  extension  of  powers  was  deemed  necessary  at  the  time, 
owing  to  the  absence  of  two  of  the  three  Federal  judges,  a  sit- 
uation that  threw  too  gjreat  a  burden  upon  Judge  Snow.± 

Territorial  Attorney-General  and  Marshal. — Another  Leg- 
islative enactment  of  that  period  created  the  offices  of  Terri- 
torial Attorney-General  and  Territorial  Marshal.  It  was  made 
the  duty  of  these  officers  and  their  deputies  to  act  for  the 
Territory  in  all  its  legal  business  arising  under  the  local  laws, 
leaving  to  the  United  States  Attorney  and  United  States  Mar- 


'•: Judge  Snow  presided  at  the  first  murder  trial  in  Utah.  It  took 
place  in  the  District  Court  at  Salt  Lake  City.  Howard  Egan,  a  Pio- 
neer, had  shot  James  Monroe,  for  seducing  his  wife,  and  Egan  was 
tried  and  acquitted.  The  case  was  prosecuted  by  United  States  Attor- 
ney Seth  M.  Blair,  and  the  defendant  was  represented  by  George  A. 
Smith  and  William  W.  Phelps. 

tProbate  Judges  were  elected  by  the  Assembly  and  commissioned 
by  the  Governor,  as  follows:  Salt  Lake  County,  Elias  Smith;  Weber 
County,  Isaac  Clark;  Davis  County,  Joseph  Holbrook;  Utah  County, 
Preston  Thomas;  Tooele  County,  Alfred  Lee;  Juab  County,  George  H. 
Bradley;  Sanpete  County,  George  Peacock;  Millard  County,  Anson 
Call;  Iron  County,  Chapman  Duncan. 

$Owing  to  disagreements  that  soon  arose,  the  Legislature  contem- 
plated an  amendment  of  its  laws,  so  as  to  limit  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
probate  courts;  but  the  continued  practice  of  many  of  the  Federal 
judges  of  absenting  themselves  from  the  Territory  for  long  periods, 
leaving  litigants  without  recourse  to  their  tribunals,  caused  matters 
to  remain  as  they  were.  The  final  settlement  of  the  controversy  came 
with  the  enactment  by  Congress  of  the  Poland  Law  (1874).  limiting 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  lesser  courts. 


84     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

shal  that  part  of  the  public  business  arising  under  the  Federal 
statutes.* 

Proclamation  of  Plural  Marriage. — About  this  time  the 
first  public  announcement  was  made  by  the  Church  in  Utah 
of  its  belief  in  and  practice  of  the  principle  of  plural  mar- 
riage, commonly  called  "polygamy."  It  had  been  intro- 
duced at  Nauvoo,  and  practiced  there  by  Joseph  Smith,  Brig- 
ham  Young,  and  other  prominent  "Mormons;"  and  the  insti- 
tution had  been  perpetuated  during  and  after  the  migration  of 
the  people  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  But  not  until  the  29th 
of  August,  1852,  were  these  facts  openly  proclaimed  to  the 
world.  The  occasion  was  a  special  conference  of  the  Church ; 
the  place,  Salt  Lake  City;  and  the  speaker,  Elder  Orson  Pratt, 
who,  under  direction  from  President  Brigham  Young,  deliv- 
ered a  discourse  embodying  the  official  announcement. t 

*The  Comptroller  of  the  United  States  Treasury,  Hon.  Elisha 
Whittlesey,  had  informed  the  Legislature,  through  Judge  Snow,  that 
the  General  Government  would  defray  only  the  expense  attendant  upon 
the  settlement  of  United  States  business  in  the  courts,  and  that  the 
Territory  must  assume  the  cost  of  its  own.  From  time  to  time  there 
was  friction  between  the  two  sets  of  officers  provided,  and  this  was  one 
cause  for  the  enactment  of  the  Poland  Law. 

fElder  Pratt  asserted  the  scriptural  character  of  the  doctrine  of  plur- 
ality of  wives,  and  declared  that  the  motive  behind  this  form  of  mar- 
riage, both  in  ancient  Israel  and  in  modern  or  "Mormon"  Israel,  was 
not  to  gratify  the  carnal  feelings  of  man,  but  to  enable  righteous  men 
and  women,  in  fulfillment  of  the  divine  command  to  "multiply  and  re- 
plenish the  earth/'  and  under  sacred  obligations,  restrictions,  and  limi- 
tations, to  raise  up  a  healthier  and  more  numerous  posterity,  to  be 
taught  and  trained  in  the  ways  of  truth  and  righteousness.  In  begin- 
ning his  discourse  the  speaker  affirmed  the  doctrine  to  be  a  part  of  the 
religious  faith  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  and  he  maintained  that  its  free 
exercise  was  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Says  B.  H.  Roberts,  in  his  History  of  the  Mormon  Church  ("Amer- 
icana" for  April,  1913) :  "It  was  time  this  action  was  taken.  The  Church 
owed  it  to  frankness  with  the  world  to  make  the  official  proclamation; 
for  many  were  in  doubt  in  respect  to  knowing  what  course  to  pursue.  It 
had  been  a  matter  of  wide  knowledge  within  the  Church  for  some  time 
that  such  a  principle  was  believed  in  and  practiced  by  many  of  the  lead- 
ing Elders;  and  yet  none  to  whom  this  knowledge  had  come  in  an  official 
way,  felt  at  liberty  to  make  proclamation  of  the  doctrine,  neither  was  it 
their  prerogative  to  do  so;  and  in  the  absence  of  an  official  announcement 
it  had  become  a  profound  source  of  embarrassment.  Justice  to  the 
women  involved  in  the  system,  moreover,  no  less  than  candor  with  the 
world,  also  required  this  official  proclamation;  for  their  standing  must 
have  become  equivocal  had  it  been  much  longer  delayed. 

"As  to  the  effect  this  proclamation  had  upon  the  work  in  general, 
men  will  differ  in  their  opinions.  That  at  the  first  it  p~ave  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  work  great  advantage,  may  not  be  doubted;  for  from  every 
foreign  mission  came  reports  of  increased  opposition  resulting  in  many 
cases  in  mob  violence.  Indeed  the  reports  of  the  'run-away  officers'— 
Brocchus,  Day  and  Brandebury,  and  their  charge  of  the  practice  of 
plural  marriage  in  Utah,  now  confirmed  by  the  official  proclamation  of 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  UTAH.  85 

Supplemental  to  the  action  taken  at  the  Conference,  Orson 
Pratt  was  sent  to  the  City  of  Washington  to  establish  and  con- 
duct a  periodical  setting  forth  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  including  the  plural  wife 
doctrine.  Accordingly  he  published  at  the  national  capital  a 
paper  called  "The  Seer,"  the  first  number  of  which  made  its  ap- 
pearance in  January,  1853.* 

Federal  Vacancies  Filled. — The  Authorities  at  Washing- 
ton exercised  due  deliberation  in  filling  the  Federal  vacancies 
in  Utah.  Eventually  Lazarus  H.  Reed,  of  New  York,  was  ap- 
pointed Chief  Justice;  Leonidas  Shaver,  Associate  Justice;  and 
Benjamin  G.  Ferris,  Secretary.  It  was  June,  1853,  when  the 
new  Chief  Justice  made  his  appearance  upon  the  streets  of  Salt 
Lake  City.  Concerning  his  reception  Judge  Reed  said  in  a 
letter:  "I  waited  on  His  Excellency,  Governor  Young,  exhib- 
ited to  him  my  commission,  and  by  him  was  duly  sworn  and 

the  doctrine  and  the  practice  of  it,  became  the  chief  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  the  opponents  of  the  New  Dispensation." 

A  glance  at  "polygamy"  in  early  Utah  is  given  by  Captain  Stans- 
bury  in  his  book,  the  "Expedition,"  which  was  published  during  the 
same  year  that  the  plural  wife  doctrine  was  proclaimed.  He  says:  "If 
a  man  once  married  desires  to  take  a  second  helpmate,  he  must  first,  as 
with  us,  obtain  the  consent  of  the  lady  intended,  and  that  of  her  par- 
ents or  guardians,  and  afterwards  the  approval  of  the  Seer  or  Presi- 
dent, without  which  the  matter  cannot  proceed.  The  woman  is  then 
'sealed'  to  him  under  the  solemn  sanction  of  the  Church,  and  stands,  in 
all  respects,  in  the  same  relation  to  the  man  as  the  wife  that  was  first 
married.  The  union  thus  formed  is  considered  a  perfectly  virtuous  and 
honorable  one,  and  the  lady  maintains  without  blemish  the  same  posi- 
tion in  society  to  which  she  would  be  entitled  were  she  the  sole  wife  of 
her  husband.  *  *  *  Purity  of  life,  in  all  the  domestic  relations,  is 
strenuously  inculcated.  *  *  *  Upon  the  practical  working  of  this 
system  of  plurality  of  wives,  I  can  hardly  be  expected  to  express  more 
than  a  mere  opinion.  *  *  *  So  far,  however,  as  my  intercourse  with 
the  inhabitants  afforded  me  an  opportunity  of  judging,  its  practical 
operation  was  quite  different  from  what  I  had  anticipated.  Peace,  har- 
mony, and  cheerfulness  seemed  to  prevail,  where  my  preconceived 
notions  led  me  to  look  for  nothing  but  the  exhibition  of  petty  jealous- 
ies, envy,  bickerings,  and  strife.  Confidence  and  sisterly  affection 
among  the  different  members  of  the  family  seemed  pre-eminently  con- 
spicuous, and  friendly  intercourse  among  neighbors,  with  balls,  parties, 
and  merry-makings  at  each  other's  houses,  formed  a  prominent  and 
agreeable  feature  of  the  society.  In  these  friendly  reunions,  the  Pres- 
ident, with  his  numerous  family,  mingled  freely,  and  was  ever  an  hon- 
ored and  welcome  guest,  tempering  by  his  presence  the  exuberant  hilar- 
ity of  the  young,  and  not  unfrequently  closing  with  devotional  exercises 
the  gaiety  of  a  happy  evening." 

*For  a  similar  purpose,  "The  Mormon,"  with  John  Taylor  as  edi- 
tor and  publisher,  was  established  in  New  York  City,  issuing  its  first 
number  in  February,  1855.  About  the  same  time  "The  Luminary"  was 
published  in  St.  Louis  by  Erastus  Snow,  and  a  little  later  (1856) 
George  Q.  Cannon  founded  "The  Western  Standard"  in  San  Francisco. 


86     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

installed  as  Chief  Justice  of  Utah.  I  was  received  by  Governor 
Young  with  marked  courtesy  and  respect.  He  has  taken  pains 
to  make  my  residence  here  agreeable." 

Judge  Shaver  and  Secretary  Ferris  had  arrived  the  year 
before.  The  coming  of  the  two  magistrates  was  a  great  relief 
to  Judge  Snow,  who  for  many  months  had  been  doing  the 
work  of  three.  Each  district  now  had  its  own  Judge,  and  the 
Supreme  Bench  of  the  Territory  was  complete.* 

*Secretary  Ferris  was  the  first  of  the  new  officers  to  retire.  He 
spent  about  six  months  in  Utah,  and  then  went  to  California.  While 
here  he  collected  materials  for  a  book,  "Utah  and  the  Mormons,"  which 
he  published  in  1854.  After  his  departure  Willard  Richards  served  an- 
other term  as  Secretary  pro  tern.,  and  was  succeeded  by  Almon  W. 
Babbitt,  who  was  appointed  Secretary  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  Chief  Justice  Reed  and  Associate  Justice  Shaver  remained  sev- 
eral years  in  the  Territory,  and  were  held  in  high  esteem  by  all  the 
citizens. 


IX. 
GROWTH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 

1852-1854. 

Extension  of  Settlements — Enterprises  and  Improve- 
ments.— Five  years  the  founders  of  Utah  had  been  in  the  Great 
Basin.  Wisely  and  well  had  they  improved  the  time.  Wher- 
ever a  spring  of  water  bubbling  up  from  some  oasis  in  the  des- 
ert, or  the  smallest  stream  flowing  from  the  mountains,  held 
out  hope  of  agricultural  success,  there  settlements  had  been 
formed  or  were  in  contemplation.  From  the  neighborhood  of 
Bear  River  on  the  north,  a  chain  of  towns  and  villages,  encir- 
cled by  farms  and  fields,  extended  southward  for  a  distance  of 
nearly  four  hundred  miles.  The  northernmost  point  of  civili- 
zation was  Box  Elder,  the  nucleus  of  Brigham  City,  then  in 
Weber  County;  the  most  southern  point,  a  ranch  on  Ash 
Creek,  now  the  town  of  Harmony,  Washington  County.  Set- 
tlements were  also  forming  east  and  west  of  Salt  Lake  Val- 
ley. The  beginnings  of  Carson  County  (now  in  Nevada)  had 
been  made,  and  the  Green  River  country  was  about  to  be 
colonized.* 

Throughout  Utah  the  erection  of  public  buildings,  the  es- 
tablishment of  educational,  mercantile,  and  industrial  enter- 
prises, and  the  increase  and  improvement  of  mail  facilities, 
kept  pace  with  the  growth  and  extension  of  the  settlements. 

First  Government  Mail  Service. — The  first  regular  mail 
service  to  Salt  Lake  City  under  a  contract  with  the  Federal 
Government,  was  conducted  by  Colonel  Samuel  H.  Woodson, 
of  Independence,  Missouri,  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  route. 
It  was  a  monthly  service,  and  was  started  in  July,  1850.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1851  Feramorz  Little,  a  Utah  man,  began 

*In  September,  1851,  a  Utah  colony  under  Amasa  M.  Lyman  and 
Charles  C.  Rich  purchased  and  occupied  the  San  Bernardino  ranch  in 
Southern  California.  This  property,  a  grant  to  its  original  owners 
from  the  Government  of  Mexico,  was  situated  about  one  hundred  miles 
northward  from  the  seaport  of  San  Diego.  It  was  acquired  with  a 
view  to  establishing  an  outfitting  post  for  "Mormon"  emigration  from 
the  West.  The  ranch  comprised  twenty  square  miles,  costing  the  col- 
onists $77,500.  A  fort  was  built,  a  city  laid  out,  municipal  and  ecclesi- 
astical governments  were  organized,  and  the  surrounding  country  was 
explored  and  improved.  The  San  Bernardino  settlement  was  main- 
tained until  the  latter  part  of  1857,  when  all  "Mormon"  colonizing 
enterprises  outside  the  Territory  were  abandoned.  The  old  town  is 
now  ihf  flourishing  City  of  San  Bernardino. 


88     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


to  carry  the  mail  over  a  portion  of  this  route,  under  a  sub-con- 
tract from  Colonel  Woodson.  Mr.  Little's  associates  were 
Charles  F.  Decker  and  Ephraim  K.  Hanks.  The  eastern  end 
of  their  division  was  Fort  Laramie,  where  the  carriers  from 
east  and  west  aimed  to  meet  on  the  15th  of  every  month.  At 
first  only  the  mails  were  carried,  but  passenger  traffic  was  soon 
added.  Willard  Richards  was  postmaster  of  Salt  Lake  City— 
the  first  one  appointed  by  the  Government. 

The  Deseret  News. — President  Richards    was    also    the 

first  editor  of  the  Deseret 
News.  The  pioneer  journal  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  began  its 
career  on  the  15th  of  June,  1850. 
It  was  then  a  small  quarto,  is- 
sued weekly,  and  printed  on  a 
wrought-iron  Ramage  hand- 
press,  purchased  in  Philadel- 
phia and  brought  to  Salt  Lake 
Valley  in  one  of  the  early  im- 
migrations. The  first  home  of 
the  Deseret  News  was  in  a 
small  one-story  building  on 
South  Temple  Street ;  the  same 
building  that  contained  the 
Deseret  Mint.  The  News  oc- 
cupied one  end  of  the  humble 
though  substantial  adobe  struc- 
ture, and  the  Mint  the  other. 

Early  Schools — University 
of  Deseret. — During  that  early 
formative  period  the  cause  of  education  was  not  neglected. 
Nearly  every  village  had  its  day  and  Sabbath  school,  and  the 
cities  and  towns  their  larger  institutions  of  learning.  Until 
schoolhouses  could  be  built,  tents  and  wagons  were  used  as 
class  rooms.  Sawed-off  pieces  of  log  served  for  seats,  and 
wooden  paddles  or  shingles,  upon  which  were  pasted  printed 
letters  cut  from  newspapers,  took  the  place  of  alphabet  charts. 
Log  and  lumber  school-houses  were  gradually  superseded  by 
buildings  of  adobe,  brick,  and  stone. 

The  University  of  Deseret,  under  the  name  of  "The  Par- 
ent School,"  threw  open  its  doors  for  the  enrollment  of  stu- 
dents in  November,  1850,  nine  months  after  the  institution 
had  been  chartered.  The  first  term  was  held  in  an  adobe 
house  belonging  to  John  Pack,  the  Pioneer,  and  situated  in 
the  Seventeenth  Ward  of  Salt  Lake  City.  The  second  term 
opened  in  the  Council  House,  the  upper  floor  of  which  had 
been  let  for  that  purpose.  The  first  Chancellor  of  the  Univer- 


PIONEER  PRINTING  PRESS. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


89 


sity  was  Orson  Spencer;  the  first  instructor,  Dr.  Cyrus  Col- 
lins, a  sojourner  in  Utah,  on  his  way  to  California.* 

Territorial  Library — Social 
Hall.— In  February,  1852,  the 
Territorial  Library,  for  which 
Congress  had  appropriated  the 
sum  of  five  thousand  dollars, 
was  opened  in  the  Council 
House,  with  William  C.  Staines 
as  Librarian.  A  large  part  of 
the  Congressional  appropria- 
tion had  been  expended  in  the 
East  by  Delegate  Bernhisel,  in 
the  purchase  of  a  choice  selec- 
tion of  books  for  the  institu- 
tion 

During  that  year  the  So- 
cial Hall  was  built — the  prin- 
cipal place  of  amusement  in 
Utah  until  the  erection  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Theatre.  The  Hall 
was  opened  on  New  Year's 
day,  1853 — not  with  a  dramatic 
performance,  but  with  "a  ORSON  SPENCER 

grand    ball."      The    first    play 
was  presented  on  the  evening  of  January  17th. f     The  Social 


*Later,  Orson  Spencer,  William  W.  Phelps  and  Orson  Pratt  were 
the  instructors.  The  school  was  supported  by  tuition.  Its  charter, 
granted  by  the  Provisional  Government,  February  28,  1850,  was  ratified 
by  the  Territorial  Legislature  October  4,  1851.  During  the  same  year, 
owing  to  scant  means  and  limited  patronage,  the  department  of  in- 
struction was  discontinued.  The  Chancellor  and  Board  of  Regents, 
however,  were  regularly  elected  by  the  Legislature,  and  continued  to 
do  good  work  in  supervising  the  public  schools.  Sixteen  years  passed 
before  the  University  re-opened. 

tThe  play  was  "Don  Caesar  de  Bazan,"  followed  by  a  farce,  "The 
Irish  Lion."  The  players  were  members  of  the  Deseret  Dramatic 
Association.  This,  however,  was  not  the  beginning  of  Utah's  dramatic 
history.  As  early  as  1850  plays  had  been  produced  at  "The  Old  Bow- 
ery," a  primitive  structure  of  timber  and  adobe  then  standing  on  the 
southeast  corner  of  Temple  Block.  Next  came  the  Musical  and  Dra- 
matic Company,  followed  by  the  Deseret  Dramatic  Association,  the 
latter  organized"  in  1851.  This  combination,  after  inaugurating  the- 
atricals at  the  Social  Hall,  temporarily  disbanded,  and  for  a  time  the 
Mechanics  Dramatic  Association  held  sway.  A  reorganization  of  the 
Deseret  Dramatic  Association  (including  the  Mechanics)  took  place 
before  the  opening  of  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre  in  1862.  This  Associa- 
tion, entirely  of  home  people,  became  noted.  They  were  not  actors  by 
profession,  but  played  for  their  own  entertainment  and  that  of  the 


90     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Hall  was  used  at  times  by  the  Legislature,  and  some  sessions 
of  the  District  Court  were  also  held  there.  At  one  time  the 
Legislature  and  the  District  Court  occupied  the  Hall  simul- 


THE   SOCIAL    HALL. 

taneously;  the  Council  sitting  upon  the  stage,  the  House  in 
the  auditorium,  and  the  Court  in  a  room  under  the  stage. 

The  Old  Tabernacle— Temple  Wall.— Another  notable 
building  of  that  period  was  the  Old  Tabernacle,  which  stood 
where  the  Assembly  Hall  now  stands.  It  was  finished  in 
April,  1852.  When  the  weather  was  warm  religious  gather- 
ings were  held  in  "The  Bowery" — not  the  one  used  as  a  the- 
atre, but  a  similar  structure  also  on  Temple  Block.  The  Old 
Tabernacle — so  named  after  the  present  Tabernacle  was  built 
— was  of  stone  and  adobe,  and  had  a  seating  capacity  of  about 
three  thousand. 

After  the  completion  of  this  building,  work  began  on  the 
wall  enclosing  the  grounds.  The  Temple  Block  wall,  ten  feet 

general  public,  eventually  supporting  traveling  stars  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude. 

Governor  Young,  who  projected  the  Social  Hall,  and  afterwards 
built  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre,  believed  the  drama  to  have  a  noble  mis- 
sion. "The  people  must  have  amusements,"  was  a  saying  frequently 
on  his  lips,  and  any  movement  that  furnished  wholesome  recreation 
had  his  countenance  and  support.  He  had  taken  part  in  home  the- 
atricals at  Nauvpo,  and  several  of  his  daughters  were  members  of  the 
Deseret  Dramatic  Association. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


91 


high,  constructed  of  sandstone  and  adobe  plastered  with  hard 
cement,  still  remains  as  one  of  the  early  landmarks.  It  was 
completed  in  1853-1854. 

The  Salt  Lake  Temple  Begun— Other  Structures.—  In 
February,  1853,  ground  was  broken  for  the  Salt  Lake  Temple, 
and  on  the  6th  of  April,  the  Church's  twenty-third  anniver- 


I  mm 

W 


TEMPLE  BLOCK,   SALT   LAKE  CITY. 

sary,  the  corner  stones  of  that  edifice  were  put  in  place  with 
imposing  ceremonies.  An  immense  throng  witnessed  the 
proceedings.*  During  the  same  year  the  Endowment  House 

*This  Temple  was  destined  to  cost  over  three  million  dollars,  and 
it  required  forty  years  for  its  completion.  Brigham  Young  was  its  pro- 
jector, Truman  O.  Angell  the  architect,  and  Daniel  H.  Wells,  the  first 
superintendent  of  construction.  The  work  proceeded  slowly,  and  was 
much  interrupted;  limited  means  being  one  of  the  causes.  At  first  it 
was  decided  to  build  the  Temple  of  Red  Butte  stone,  and  a  wooden 
car-track  was  laid  to  the  canyon  for  that  purpose;  but  afterwards  the 
Little  Cottonwood  granite  was  chosen.  Until  the  advent  of  the  rail- 
road, every  stone  that  went  into  the  structure  was  hauled  by  oxen  a 
distance  of  nearly  twenty  miles.  The  cutting  and  chiseling  of  the  huge 
blocks  into  shape,  with  other  work  about  the  Temple  grounds,  gave 
employment  to  mechanics  and  laborers  who  were  continually  arriving 
from  abroad.  These  workmen  were  paid  mostly  in  farm  produce,  with 
a  little  cash  or  merchandise,  as  such  means  became  available. 


92     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

was  built;  likewise  the  Church  Historian's  Office,  the  Salt 
Lake  County  Court  House,  and  the  Territorial  Penitentiary. 
Then  followed  the  Lion  House,  the  Bee  Hive  House,  and  the 
Eagle  Gate,  all  erected  during  the  decade  of  the  "fifties." 

Mercantile  Activities. — Outside  the  "Mormon"  commu- 
nity, the  first  person  to  bring  goods  to  the  Utah  market  for 
sale,  was  Captain  Grant,  of  Fort  Hall,  representing  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company.  The  next  traders  of  note  were  Livingston 
and  Kinkead,  a  St.  Louis  firm,  who  brought  a  large'  stock  of 
merchandise  across  the  plains,  arriving  here  in  the  autumn  of 
1849.  .  A  year  later  Holladay  and  Warner,  another  eastern 
firm,  opened  a  small  store  on  South  Temple  Street.  Their 
business  was  in  charge  of  William  H.  Hooper,  who  married  a 
"Mormon"  girl,  espoused  her  religion,  and  became  one  of  the 
leading  financiers  of  Utah,  also  serving  the  Territory  as  Dele- 
gate in  Congress.  The  senior  partner  of  this  firm  was  Ben 
Holladay,  who  later  established  the  Overland  Stage  Line. 
These  merchants  were  all  "Gentiles,"  but  they  soon  had  "Mor- 
mon" competitors,  such  as  the  Reese  Brothers,  John  and 
Enoch,  and  William  Nixon,  "the  father  of  Utah  merchants," 
so-called  because  many  of  his  employes  subsequently  set  up 
in  business  for  themselves.* 

High   Prices — Barter  and   Exchange. — Nothing   in   mer- 

*Captain  Grant  sold  sugar  and  coffee  at"one  dollar  a  pint,"  calicoes 
at  fifty  and  seventy-five  cents  a  yard,  and  other  articles  in  propor- 
tion. Livingston  and  Kinkead  sold  sugar  and  coffee  at  forty  cents  a 
pound,  and  calicoes  at  twenty-five  cents  a  yard. 

Some  of  the  advertisements  of  those  days  read  quaintly  now.  For 
instance,  the  Reese  Brothers  announce  that  they  "have  constantly  on 
hand  all  necessary  articles  of  comfort  for  the  wayfarer;  such  as  flour, 
hard  bread,  butter,  eggs,  vinegar,  clothing,  buckskin  pants,  whip-lashes, 
as  well  as  a  good  assortment  of  store  goods,"  at  their  "store  near  the 
Council  House."  Alexander  Neibaur,  surgeon  dentist  from  Berlin  and 
Liverpool,  informs  the  public  that  he  "examines  and  extracts  teeth, 
besides  keeping  constantly  on  hand  a  supply  of  the  best  matches,  man- 
ufactured by  himself."  William  Hennefer  caps  the  climax  by  pro- 
claiming that  he  has  just  opened,  in  connection  with  his  barber  shop, 
an  eating  house,  where  his  patrons  will  be  accommodated  with  every 
edible  luxury  "The  Valley"  affords.  William  Nixon  is  particular  to 
point  out  the  precise  locality  of  his  "shop" — "at  Jacob  Houtz's  house, 
on  the  southeast  corner  of  Council  House  Street  and  Emigration 
Street,  opposite  to  Mr.  Orson  Spencer's."  This,  of  course,  was  before 
the  streets  of  Salt  Lake  City  received  their  present  names,  and  long 
before  the  houses  were  numbered.  Mr.  Nixon  states  that  the  goods  he 
carries  "will  be  sold  cheap  for  cash,  wheat,  or  flour."  What  was  consid- 
ered cheap  by  the  sellers  of  goods  may  be  seen  from  the  following  list: 
A  small  cooking  stove  cost  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars;  glass,  thirty  to  thirty-six  dollars  a  box;  writing  paper,  ten  to 
twelve  dollars  a  ream;  photographs  four  or  five  dollars  each;  calico 
prints  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents.  All  kinds  of  steel  and  iron  goods  were 
very  expensive. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH.          93 

chandise  was  cheap  at  that  time.  The  prevailing  high  prices 
induced  some  of  the  citizens  to  purchase  their  family  supplies 
in  eastern  markets  and  freight  them  to  Utah  in  their  own 
wagons.  Conscientious  merchants  cut  down  prices,  but  some 
dealers  seemed  to  have  no  conscience.  On  many  articles  the 
profit  was  four  to  five  hundred  per  cent,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  farmer,  fruit-grower,  or  manufacturer  was  allowed  as  lit- 
tle as  possible  for  produce  or  commodities  taken  in  exchange.* 
In  justice  to  the  merchants  accused  of  over-charging,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  they  were  under  very  heavy  expenses, 
and  took  great  risks  in  purchasing  large  stocks  of  goods  and 
freighting  them  over  vast  distances  through  untold  difficulties 
and  perils. 

Primitive  business  methods  continued  for  many  years. 
The  dry  goods  and  groceries  of  the  merchant  were  exchanged 
for  the  products  of  farm,  mill  and  workshop,  and  these  prod- 
ucts, when  not  used  at  home,  were  turned  into  cash  in  distant 
markets.  As  soon  as  the  fine  young  orchards  began  to  bear, 
the  dried  fruit  industry  flourished  on  every  hand. 

Home  Manufacture — Governor  Young's  Advice. — Much 
attention  was  given  to  home  manufacture,  and  industry  and 
economy  were  earnestly  enjoined.  Governor  Young,  in  his 
•message  to  the  Legislature,  in  January,  1852,  said:  "Let  home 
industry  produce  every  article  of  home  consumption."  The 
message  also  contained  these  sentences :  "Deplorable  indeed 
must  be  the  situation  of  that  people  whose  sons  are  not 
trained  in  the  practice  of  every  useful  avocation,  and  whose 
daughters  mingle  not  in  the  hive  of  industry."  "Produce  what 
you  consume;  draw  from  the  native  elements  the  necessaries 
of  life ;  permit  no  vitiated  taste  to  lead  you  into  indulgence  of 
expensive  luxuries,  which  can  only  be  obtained  by  involving 
yourselves  in  debt."  The  Governor  asked  for  the  enactment 
of  laws  to  protect  local  industries  and  to  encourage  the  man- 
ufacturing interests. 

Textile  Industries. — Silk  culture  was  persistently  advo- 
cated ;  also  the  raising  of  flax,  cotton,  and  wool,  with  the  mak- 
ing of  cloth,  thread,  yarn  and  other  articles.  The  wool  indus- 
try had  begun,  though  on  a  small  scale,  with  the  founding  of 
the  commonwealth;  a  thousand  sheep  having  been  brought 
with  the  immigration  of  1848,  when  the  first  public  carding 

*The  Deseret  News  gave  the  public  this  practical  piece  of  advice: 
"Let  all  trading  shops  severely  alone,  where  they  ask  you  fifty  'cents 
a  pound  for  candles,  forty  cents  a  pound  for  sugar  and  soap,  two  dol- 
lars and  a  half  a  bunch  for  cotton  yarn,  etc.,  and  will  only  give  you  ten 
dollars  a  ton  for  hay,  pay  you  in  goods  at  those  high  prices,  and  then 
forthwith  sell  the  .hay  for  fifteen  dollars  in  cash.  *  *  *  Hay  is 
worth  fifteen  dollars  *  *  *  and  it  will  soon  be  worth  twenty  dol- 
lars." 


94     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

machine  was  set  up  in  Salt  Lake  Valley.  Silk  worms  and 
mulberry  trees  were  imported  from  the  south  of  France  in 
the  fore  part  of  the  "fifties,"  and  about  the  same  time  cotton 
and  flax  were  raised  in  various  parts  of  the  Territory. 

Sugar  and  Iron. — In  August,  1852,  there  arrived  in  Utah 
the  machinery  for  a  beet  sugar  plant,  John  Taylor,  as  agent 
for  the  Church,  having  purchased  it  in  Liverpool  at  a  cost  of 
$12,500.  The  machinery  was  set  up  in  the  southern  suburb  of 
Salt  Lake  City ;  Sugar  House  Ward  taking  its  name  from  the 
attempt  then  made  to  establish  this  industry.  The  attempt 
was  unsuccessful,  but  the  memory  of  it  remained  as  an 
inspiration  for  future  efforts  that  have  been  productive  of  re- 
markable results.  The  abandoned  Sugar  House  was  turned 
into  a  paper  mill,  the  forerunner  of  a  larger  one  subsequently 
established  and  conducted  in  the  same  vicinity  by  the  Deseret 
News  Company. 

The  Deseret  Iron  Company,  which  Erastus  Snow  and 
Franklin  D.  Richards  had  organized  in  England,  was  char- 
tered by  the  Utah  Legislature  during  the  winter  of  1852-1853. 
Subsequently  furnaces  were  erected  and  pig-iron  manufac- 
tured at  Cedar  City.*  Grist  mills  and  saw  mills  had  long 
been  in  operation  all  over  the  land,  and  now  tanneries,  found- 
ries, cutleries, 'potteries,  and  other  industries  began  to  thrive.' 
Among  the  earliest  home-made  articles  were  cloth,  fur  goods, 
leather,  hats,  caps,  cordage,  brushes,  combs,  soap,  matches, 
paper,  ink,  knives,  forks,  and  nails. 

Petitions  for  Railroad  and  Telegraph. — The  need  of  a  rail- 
road and  telegraph  line  across  the  great  plains  and  mountains 
was  sorely  felt  in  Utah,  and  early  in  1852  the  Governor  and 
Legislature  petitioned  Congress  for  the  establishment  of  both 
these  mighty  agents  of  civilization.  Similar  petitions  of  later 
date  were  frequently  sent  to  Congress  from  this  Territory  and 
other  parts  of  the  west.f 

*Cedar  City  had  been  founded  for  this  special  purpose.  The  place 
was  settled  in  the  autumn  of  1851,  by  thirty-five  men  from  Parowan, 
which  had  been  located  by  George  A.  Smith  in  December,  1850,  when 
he  led  about  thirty  families  from  Salt  Lake  Valley  for  that  purpose. 
Parowan  was  begun  as  a  farming  district,  to  provide  for  those  who 
might  be  employed  in  the  Cedar  Iron  Works,  then  in  prospect.  At 
both  places  forts  were  built,  lands  enclosed,  canals  constructed,  and 
harvests  sown.  Under  the  charter  granted  by  the  Legislature  the  Des- 
eret Iron  Company  began  its  career  with  a  capital  stock  of  about 
$20,000.  The  Legislature  made  two  appropriations,  aggregating  nearly 
$7,000,  to  encourage  this  industry,  and  the  "Mormon"  Church,  by  its 
Trustee-in-Trust,  took  shares  in  the  enterprise. 

tit  has  often  been  asserted  that  the  founders  of  Utah,  when  they 
settled  amid  the  solitudes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  were  seeking  a  per- 
manent isolation  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  Their  early  efforts  to  se- 
cure railroad  and  telegraph  facilities  do  not  bear  out  this  theory.  A 


GROWTH  OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH.          95 

Utah  towns  in  1853. — In  1853  the  principal  towns  of  Utah 
were  listed  as  follows :  Great  Salt  Lake  County — Great  Salt 
Lake  City,  Butterfield,  West  Jordan,  Mill  Creek,  Big  Cotton- 
wood,  South  Cottonwood,  Little  Cottonwood,  and  Willow 
Creek.  Davis  County— North  Canyon,  Centerville,  North 


GREAT  SALT  LAKE  CITY,    1853. 

Cottonwood,  and  Kay's  Ward.  Weber  County — Ogden,  East 
Weber,  Willow  Creek,  and  Box  Elder.  Utah  County — Provo, 
Dry  Creek,  American  Fork,  Pleasant  Grove,  Mountainville, 

temporary  isolation  they  undoubtedly  desired,  but  that  it  could  only  be 
temporary,  they  well  knew.  The  Pioneers,  while  coming  west,  marked 
out,  or  their  leader  did,  what  he  believed  would  one  day  be  the  route 
of  a  great  railroad  across  the  country.  George  A.  Smith,  who  came 
with  Brigham  Young  to  Salt  Lake  Valley,  made  this  statement,  many 
years  ago,  in  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Evening  Post. 

The  petition  of  1852  expressed  the  belief  that  five  thousand  Amer- 
ican citizens  had  perished  on  the  different  routes  to  the  West  within 
three  years,  for  want  of  proper  means  of  transportation;  also,  that  the 
ODening  of  the  Utah  mines  and  the  further  development  of  the  mines  of 
California  depended  upon  the  construction  of  such  a  road.  The  secur- 
ing of  Asiatic  and  Pacific  trade,  and  the  union  of  the  eastern  and  west- 
ern extremities  of  the  Nation,  were  among  the  advantages  suggested. 
It  was  proposed  that  the  railroad  start  from  some  eligible  point  on  the 
Mississippi  or  the  Missouri  River,  and  pass  through  this  Territory  to 
San  Diego,  San  Francisco,  Sacramento,  Astoria,  or  some  other  point 
on  or  near  the  Pacific  Coast.  Utah  agreed  to  supply  at  reasonable 
rates  materials  and  provisions  for  the  building  of  the  road,  and  to  fur- 
nish an  extensive  trade  after  its  completion. 

When  Delegate  Bernhisel  presented  this  memorial  in  the  House 
of  Representatives- at  Washington,  he  was  told  that  he  was  a  hundred 
years  ahead  of  the  age.  In  reply,  he  invited  the  members  to  ride  over 
the  road  upon  its  completion  and  visit  him  at  his  home  in  Salt  Lake 
City.  Twenty  years  later  some  of  them  actually  did  so,  the  transconti- 
nental railroad  being  then  an  accomplished  fact. 


96     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Springville,  Palmyra,  Peteetneet,  Summit  Creek,  and  Cedar 
Valley.  Sanpete — Ma'nti,  Pleasant  Creek,  and  Allred's  Settle- 
ment. Juab  County — Salt  Creek.  Tooele  County — Tooele 
and  Grantsville.  Millard  County — Fillmore.  Iron  County— 
Parowan  and  Cedar.  A  year  later,  David  and  Lake,  in  Utah 
County,  and  Harmony,  in  the  far  south,  were  added  to  the 
list.* 

Additional  Counties. — In  January,  1854,  the  Legislature 
organized  the  counties  of  Carson,  Summit,  and  Green  River. 
Carson  Valley  had  received  its  first  settlers  in  1850-1851; 
Hampden  S.  Beatie  being  the  pioneer  of  that  part.  Early  in 
1853  Samuel  Snyder  built  a  saw  mill  near  Parley's  Park,  now 
in  Summit  County;  and  late  in  the  same  year  Orson  Hyde, 
with  a  colony,  founded  Fort  Supply  on  Green  River.  This 
post  was  about  ten  miles  from  Fort  Bridger,  which  had  just 
been  purchased  for  the  Church  by  President  Brigham  Young. 

*Some  of  these  titles  have  since  been  changed.  In  January,  1868, 
Great  Salt  Lake  County  and  City  were  shortened  by  legislative  enact- 
ment to  Salt  Lake  County  and  City.  Butterfield  and  Willow  Creek,  in 
Salt  Lake  County,  are  now  Herriman  and  Draper;  while  the  second 
Willow  Creek  is  Willard,  Box  Elder  County.  North  Canyon  became 
Sessions'  Settlement  and  then  Bountiful.  North  Cottonwood  was  re- 
named Farmington;  Kays  Ward,  Kaysville;  East  Weber,  Uintah;  and 
Box  Elder,  Brigham  City.  Dry  Creek  changed  to  Lehi,  Mountainville 
to  Alpine,  Peteetneet  to  Payson,  Summit  Creek  to  Santaquin,  Pleas- 
ant Creek  to  Mount  Pleasant,  Allred's  Settlement  to  Spring  City,  and 
Salt  Creek  to  Nephi. 


X. 

AN  INDIAN  UPRISING. 

1853-1854. 

Interrupted  Colonization. — During  part  of  the  period  cov- 
ered by  the  foregoing  chapter  the  work  of  colonization  in 
Central  and  Southern  Utah  was  interrupted  by  an  Indian  war. 
It  was  known  as  "The  Walker  War,"  the  Ute  chief  Walker 
being  at  the  head  and  front  of  the  hostiles. 

Governor  Young's  Indian  Policy. — The  Indian  policy  of 
the  founders  of  Utah  is  summed  up  in  a  remark  made  by  Gov- 
ernor Brigham  Young:  "It  is  cheaper  to  feed  the  Indians 
than  to  fight  them."  Instead  of  treating  the  red  men  like 
wild  beasts,  fit  only  to  be  hunted  and  exterminated  (the  meas- 
ure meted  out  to  them  by  many  passers  over  the  plains),  the 
people  here  were  their  friends,  and  tried  to  teach  them  the 
arts  of  civilization.  The  Indians  were  not  insensible  to  such 
treatment,  and  reciprocal  feelings  and  acts  were  the  result.* 

Still,  there  were  wars,  necessary  wars,  with  the  natives, 
many  of  whom,  tenacious  of  their  traditions,  and  unable  to 
distinguish  at  all  times  between  friends  and  foes,  wantonly 
attacked  those  who  had  settled  among  them.  They  had  to  be 
punished  for  such  aggressions,  until  they  learned  that  no 
harm,  but  only  good,  was  intended  by  their  white  neighbors. 
Governor  Young's  Indian  policy  triumphed;  the  most  warlike 
of  the  savages  finally  becoming  peaceable  and  friendly. 

A  Truculent  Chieftain. — Chief  Walker's  conversion,  how- 
ever, was  not  immediate.  He  was  naturally  quarrelsome  and 
bloodthirsty,  and  it  took  time  to  convince  him  that  the  white 
man  could  be  the  red  man's  friend.  His  name  was  a  terror 
from  New  Mexico  to  California,  where  he  raided  and  robbed 
the  settlements,  returning  with  his  plunder  to  the  mountains 


*The  author  remembers  seeing,  when  a  boy,  the  Shoshone  chief 
Washakie  and  his  bands  supplied  with  bread  and  beeves  by  the  au- 
thorities at  Salt  Lake  City;  an  incident  typical  of  the  general  policy 
and  practice.  The  interest  felt  for  the  Indians  by  the  Latter-day 
Saints  is  largely  owing  to  the  teachings  in  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Ac- 
cording to  that  record,  these  "Lamanites"  are  a  degenerate  remnant 
of  the  House  of  Israel,  destined  to  be  lifted  up  from  their  fallen  con- 
dition, to  do  great  things  in  the  future  of  America. 


98     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  Utah.     He  was  also  feared  and  hated  by  other  tribes  of 
Indians.* 

Mexican  Slave  Traders. — The  Walker  War  was  partly  an 
outgrowth  of  the  Indian  slave  trade,  which  was  then  carried 
on  by  some  of  the  Mexican  inhabitants  of  California  and 
New  Mexico.  Governor  Young,  in  January,  1852,  had  called 
the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to  this  nefarious  traffic  and  to 
his  endeavors  to  prevent  its  extension  into  Utah.  Incidentally 
he  made  known  the  fact  that  he  was  an  anti-slavery  man, 
though  he  drew  a  distinction  between  "honorable  servitude" 
and  the  abuses  of  the  slave  system.  "No  property,"  said  he, 
"can  or  should  be  recognized  as  existing  in  slaves,  either  In- 
dian or  African." 

In  November,  1851,  it  had  become  known  that  a  party 
of  twenty  Mexicans,  headed  by  one  Pedro  Leon,  were  in  San- 
pete  Valley,  trading  horses  for  Indian  children  and  firearms. 
They  had  licenses  signed  by  James  S.  Calhoon,  Governor  and 
Superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  for  New  Mexico,  authoriz- 
ing them  to  trade  with  the  Ute  Indians  "in  all  their  various 

*  Lieutenant  Gunnison,  referring  to  Walker's  antecedents,  says: 
"A  late  chief,  acting  upon  the  plurality  law,  left  about  thirty  sons, 
most  of  whom  have  small  clans  under  them.  His  true  successor  is  a 
fine,  brave  Indian,  with  the  largest  band  immediately  around  him, 
and  he  exercises  control  over  all  whom  he  chooses.  He  is  a  friend  of 
the  Mormons.  A  half  brother  of  his,  named  Walker,  has  become  rich 
and  celebrated  for  his  success  in  stealing  horses  from  the  Mexicans. 
He  has  a  large  drove  of  cattle,  with  many  followers." 

When  the  Pioneers  were  approaching  Salt  Lake  Valley,  and  it  be- 
came known  that  they  olanned  settling  in  this  region,  the  question 
of  how  they  should  be  treated  was  considered  at  a  large'Ute  encamp- 
ment in  the  Wasatch  Mountains.  The  chief  Sowiette  advised  peace 
and  friendship,  while  Walker  raised  his  voice  for  war  and  extermina- 
tion. Most  of  the  young  men.  stood  with  him.  The  debate  grew  warm, 
and  finally  Walker  intimated  that  Sowiette  was  a  coward.  The  peace- 
loving  sachem  could  endure  no  more.  Seizing  a  rawhide  whip,  he 
advanced  upon  the  insulter  and  gave  him  a  sound  flogging.  There 
was  no  more  talk  of  Sowiette's  "cowardice,"  and  his  peace  counsel 
prevailed. 

Tradition  tells  of  a  similar  encounter  between  Walker  and  Wash- 
akie.  The  Shoshone  chief,  angered  by  the  Ute,  challenged  him  to  sin- 
gle combat.  Walker  failing  to  accept  the  challenge,  Washakie  called 
him  a  "dog,"  and  snatching  from  him  his  tomahawk,  hurled  it  away 
in  scorn  and  contempt. 

Washakie  was  a  staunch  friend  to  the  settlers,  and  his  good  will 
was  prized.  He  spent  his  last  years  on  an  Indian  reservation  in  Wyo- 
ming. President  Grant,  it  is  related,  sent  him  a  handsome  saddle, 
which  the  chief  much  appreciated,  but  said  nothing  in  return  for  the 
gift.  When  asked  why  he  was  silent,  Washakie  replied,  in  substance: 
"White  man's  gratitude  is  in  his  head,  and  the  head  can  speak;  In- 
dian's gratitude  is  in  his  heart,  and  the  heart  has  no  tongue."  The 
Indian  settlement,  Washakie,  in  Northern  Utah,  was  named  in  honor 
of  this  noble  red  man. 


AN  INDIAN  UPRISING. 


99 


localities."  As  this  included  Utah,  the  Deseret  News  criticized 
the  conduct  of  Governor  Calhoon  and  showed  that  the  pur- 
chase and  removal  of  Indian  children  from  this  Territory  con- 
stituted the  crime  of  kidnapping.  The  News  also  made  it  clear 
that  if  the  traders  were  purchasing  arms  and  ammunition  to 
supply  the  Navajo  Indians,  who  were  at  war  with  the  United 
States,  it  was  treason,  according  to  the  letter  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

These  protests  and  warnings  had  no  effect  upon  the  slave 
traders.  They  declared  that  they  would  do  as  they  pleased, 
regardless  of  law  and  authority.  Whereupon  Pedro  Leon 
and  seven  of  his  party  were  ar- 
rested and  tried  before  a  justice 
of  the  peace  at  Manti.  Subse- 
quently their  case  came  before 
Judge  Snow,  in  the  District 
Court  at  Salt  Lake  City.  The 
court  decided  against  the  Mex- 
icans, and  the  Indian  slaves  in 
their  possession,  a  squaw  and 
eight  children,  were  set  free. 

Inciting  the  Savages. — The 
traders,  having  been  ordered  to 
leave  the  Territory,  avenged 
themselves  by  stirring  up  the 
savages  against  the  settlers. 
They  also  furnished  the  Indians 
with  guns  and  ammunition, 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  Utah 
and  of  the  United  States.  The 
situation  became  so  serious 
that  Governor  Young,  in  April, 
1853,  issued  a  proclamation, 
calling  attention  to  the  tac- 
tics of  the  slave  traders,  and  ordering  Captain  Wall,  with 
thirty  mounted  men,  to  reconnoiter  the  southern  country  and 
arrest  every  strolling  Mexican  party  or  any  other  suspicious 
person  whom  he  might  encounter. 

The  War  Begins  — Death  of  Alexander  Keel.— The 
Walker  war  began  in  Utah  County,  during  the  summer  of 
1853.  Walker  and  his  brother  Arapeen,  with  their  bands, 
were  then  encamped  on  Peteetneet  Creek,  at  the  mouth  of 
Payson  Canyon.  On  the  18th  of  July  a  number  of  his  -war- 
riors rode  down  to  Fort  Payson,  where  the  inhabitants  re- 
ceived them  kindly,  and  as  usual  gave  them  food.  No  hostile 
movement  was  made  until  evening,  when  the  Indians,  as  they 
were  leaving  the  fort,  shot  Alexander  Keel,  who  was  standing 


WASHAKIE. 


100   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

guard  outside.  The  provocation  for  this  murder  was  a  severe 
punishment  administered  by  a  resident  of  Springville  to  a  Ute 
Indian  who  was  beating  his  squaw;  the  white  man  interfering 
in  her  behalf. 

Hastening  back  to  camp,  the  murderers  informed  Walker 
of  what  they  had  done.  He  at  once  ordered  his  tribesmen  to 
pack  their  wigwams  and  retreat  into  the  mountains.  Several 
white  families  were  living  in  Payson  Canyon,  and  upon  these 
the  savages  fired  as  they  passed,  but  were  in  too  great  a  hurry 
to  do  serious  harm. 

Expecting  a  general  attack,  the  people  of  Payson  flew  to 
arms,  and  were  reinforced  by  bodies  of  militia  from  Spanish 
Fork,  Springville,  and  Provo.  It  was  decided  to  follow  the 
Indians,  who,  it  was  feared,  intended  to  attack  the  Sanpete 
settlements;  a  fear  justified  by  events  that  followed.  Leaving 
the  infantry  to  garrison  Fort  Payson,  Colonel  Conover,  with 
his  cavalry,  started  for  Manti.  General  Wells,  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  being  informed  of  the  situation,  sent  Colonel  William 
H.  Kimball,  with  a  hundred  mounted  men,  to  reinforce  Con- 
over. 

Indian  Attacks — Military  Movements. —  Attacks  were 
made  by  the  Indians  at  various  points,  and  they  raided  and 
ran  off  stock  in  all  directions.  In  an  assault  upon  Springville, 
William  Jolley  was  wounded  in  the  arm.  At  Nephi  cattle  were 
stolen  and  the  guard  fired  upon,  David  Udall  being  wounded. 
Similar  depredations  were  committed  in  Sanpete  Valley.  Near 
Mount  Pleasant,  a  portion  of  Conover's  command  under  Lieu- 
tenant Jabez  Nowlin  were  fired  upon  by  twenty  or  thirty  In- 
dians. The  troops  returned  the  fire,  and  the  savages  fled,  leav- 
ing six  or  seven  of  their  number  dead  on  the  field. 

Running  the  Gauntlet. — Colonel  Conover  now  started 
messengers  for  Salt  Lake  City,  to  request  further  orders  from 
General  Wells.  The  messengers  were  Clark  Roberts  of  Provo 
and  John  W.  Berry  of  Spanish  Fork.  Leaving  Manti  on  the 
afternoon  of  July  23rd,  they  reached  Santaquin  next  morning 
to  find  the  place  deserted;  the  settlers  having  sought  safety  at 
Payson.  As  the  two  horsemen  rode  through  the  town,  they 
were  fired  upon  by  Indians  concealed  in  the  houses,  Berry  be- 
ing shot  in  the  wrist,  and  Roberts  through  the  shoulder.  Put- 
ting spurs  to  their  horses,  they  rode  at  full  speed  toward  Pay- 
son,  hotly  pursued,  and  succeeded  in  escaping. 

Measure's  of  Defense. — Colonel  George  A.  Smith  was  now 
put  in  command  of  all  the  militia  south  of  Salt  Lake  City,  with 
instructions  to  take  prompt  and  thorough  measures  for  the 
defense  and  safety  of  the  settlements.  He  was  directed  by 
Governor  Young  to  gather  all  the  inhabitants  into  forts,  to 


AN  INDIAN  UPRISING. 


101 


corral  their  stock,  and  surround  it  with  armed  guards.  No 
offensive  warfare  was  to  be  permitted,  but  Indians  caught  at- 
tempting to  kill  or  steal  were  to  be  summarily  punished.  Col- 
onel Smith  carried  out  his  instructions,  and  the  wisdom  of 
these  defensive  measures  was  soon  apparent.  Settlers 
failed  to  build  forts  and  corral 
their  stock,  suffered  severely 
from  the  raids  of  the  savages.* 

Typical  Indian  Outrages. 
— About  the  middle  of  August, 
Parley's  Canyon,  east  of  Salt 
Lake  Valley,  was  the  scene  of 
an  Indian  outrage.  Four  men, 
John  Dixon,  John  Quayle, 
John  Hoagland,  and  John 
Knight,  were  hauling  lumber 
from  Snyder's  saw  mill,  and 
had  reached  the  vicinity  of 
"The  Summit,"  when  they 
were  fired  upon  by  Indians  in 
ambush.  Quayle  and  Dixon 
were  instantly  killed.  Hoag- 
land was  wounded  in  the  arm, 
but  was  able  to  help  Knight 
unhitch  two  of  their  horses, 
upon  which  they  rode  with  all 
speed  to  Salt  Lake  City,  barely 
escaping  with  their  lives.  John  Dixon  was  a  Pioneer  of  1847. 

A  similar  tragedy  took  place  in  Juab  County,  on  the  first 
of  October.  William  Reed,  James  Nelson,  William  Luke,  and 
Thomas  Clark  had  started  from  Manti  with  two  wagons 
loaded  with  wheat  for  Salt  Lake  City,  and  had  reached  Uintah 
Springs,  a  little  east  of  Salt  Creek  Canyon,  when  their  camp 
was  attacked  by  Indians.  All  four  men  were  killed.  There  had 
been  a  fight  on  Clover  Creek  during  August,  in  which  one  In- 
dian was  killed  and  a  white  man,  Isaac  Duffm,  wounded. 

At  Manti,  on  the  fourth  of  October,  William  Mills  and 
John  E.  Warner  fell  victims  to  an  Indian  assault  near  a  grist 
mill  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town ;  and  at  Santaquin,  ten  days 
later,  several  men  engaged  in  harvesting  were  fired  upon  and 
F.  F.  Tindrel  slain. 

*Colonel  Smith  had  met  Walker  in  Little  Salt  Lake  Valley,  while 
he  and  his  fellow  colonists  were  locating  the  town  of  Parowan.  The 
Ute  chief  made  them  a  visit,  accompanied  by  a  large  band  of  braves. 
The  conduct  of  the  Indians  demonstrated,  to  the  satisfaction  of  these 
settlers,  that  building  a  fort  and  living  in  it  was  the  only  safe  policy 
for  them  to  pursue. 


GEORGE  A.   SMITH. 


102   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Perilous  Times.— Travel  from  settlement  to  settlement, 
unless  accompanied  by  a  strong  guard,  was  now  extremely 
perilous.  During  this  period  the  authorities  at  Salt  Lake  City 
ordered  a  "Spanish  wall"  built  around  the  town,  as  a  means  of 
defense  and  an  example  to  the  outlying  settlements.  The 
wall  was  to  be  of  earth,  twelve  feet  high,  six  feet  through 
at  the  base,  and  tapering  to  a  thickness  of  two  and  a  half  feet 
at  the  top,  with  gates  and  bastions  at  suitable  intervals.  Frag- 
ments of  this  old-time  barrier,  which  was  never  completed, 
may  still  be  seen  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 

In  the  autumn  of  that  troubled  year,  at  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Church,  a  number  of  prominent  men  were  called 
to  lead  companies  to  various  parts  for  the  purpose  of  strength- 
ening the  imperiled  settlements.  Each  company  was  to  con- 
sist of  fifty  families.* 

Pauvants  on  the  War  Path. — Meanwhile  the  Indian  war 
went  on.  From  the  savages  who  had  begun  the  strife,  others 
caught  the  infection.  At  Fillmore,  on  the  13th  of  September, 
William  Hatton,  while  standing  guard,  was  killed  by  some  of 
the  Pauvant  tribe.  On  the  26th,  Captain  Stephen  Markham, 
with  his  command,  had  a  brush  with  the  red  men  near  Nephi, 
a  number  of  Indians  being  killed,  and  one  white  man,  C.  B. 
Hancock,  wounded.  In  another  skirmish  at  the  same  place 
eight  savages  were  slain  and  several  captured.  At  various 
points,  saw  mills,  grist  mills,  and  other  buildings,  temporarily 
abandoned  by  the  settlers,  were  burned  by  the  marauders. 

The  Gunnison  Massacre. — An  episode  of  the  Walker  War 
was  the  tragedy  known  as  the  Gunnison  massacre.  Captain 
John  W.  Gunnison,  who  as  Lieutenant  of  Topographical  Engi- 
neers had  visited  Salt  Lake  Valley  with  Captain  Stansbury 
in  1849,  returned  to  this  region  in  1853,  at  the  head  of  "The 
Central  Pacific  Railroad  Surveying  Expedition" — which,  by 
the  way,  had  no  connection  with  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
afterwards  built  from  California  to  Utah.  The  route  sur- 
veyed by  him  was  from  the  East,  crossing  Green  and  Grand 
rivers.  Captain  Gunnison,  having  passed  the  Wasatch  Moun- 
tains, had  turned  northward  and  was  camped  on  Sevier  River 
when  his  terrible  fate  overtook  him. 

Indian  Retaliation. — The  Gunnison  massacre  was  an  act 

-"George  A.  Smith,  Erastus  Snow,  and  Franklin  D.  Richards  were 
to  lead  two  companies  to  Iron  and  Millard  counties;  Wilford  Wood- 
ruff -and  Ezra  T.  Benson,  a  company  to  Tooele  County;  and  Lyman 
Stevens  and  Reuben  Allred,  a  company  to  each  of  the  settlements  in 
Sanpete  Valley.  Lorenzo  Snow  was  to  take  fifty  families  to  Box 
Klder  County,  and  Joseph  T..  I  I  c-ywuod,  another  fifty  to  Juab  County. 
At  this  same  conference  Orson  Hyde  was  directed  to  organize  an 
expedition  and  found  a  permanent  settlement  on  Green  River. 


AN  INDIAN  UPRISING.  103 

of  revenge,  the  provocation  for  which  had  been  given  sev- 
eral weeks  before,  by  a  party  of  Missouri  emigrants,  on  their 
way  to  California.  These  emigrants  had  encamped  at  Fill- 
more.  Excited  by  the  reports  of  Indian  outrages  all  around 
them,  some  of  the  party  vowed  to  kill  the  first  savages  that 
came  into  their  camp.  Judge  Anson  Call,  the  principal  man  at 
Fillmore,  remonstrated  with  the  makers  of  this  unwise  threat, 
informing  them  that  some  of  the  Indians  were  friendly.  The 
Missourians,  however,  carried  out  their  purpose,  killing  two 
Indians  and  wounding  three  others.  These  were  friendly 
Pauvants,  begging  food  and  clothing.  Roughly  ordered  away 
and  refusing  to  go,  they  were  assaulted,  and  in  the  scuffle  that 
ensued  several  rifles  were  discharged,  with  the  result  stated. 
Captain  Hildreth,  who  commanded  the  emigrant  train,  much 
regretted  the  affair,  which  occurred  during  his  absence.  No 
reparation  was  made,  and  the  relatives  of  the  slain  Indians 
sought  revenge.  The  emigrants  were  then  beyond  reach,  but 
the  avengers,  according  to  savage  custom,  attacked  the  next 
party  of  white  men  passing  through  their  country. 

That  party  was  the  one  led  by  Captain  Gunnison.  Meet- 
ing him  soon  after  the  killing  of  the  Pauvants,  Judge  Call  re- 
lated to  him  the  occurrence.  The  Captain  expressed  keen  re- 
gret, remarking:  "The  Indians  are  sure  to  take  their  revenge." 
He  was  well  acquainted  with  their  customs,  having  studied 
and  written  upon  the  subject. 

Gunnison's  Party — Place  of  the  Tragedy. — In  addition  to 
Captain  Gunnison,  the  party  comprised  Lieutenant  E.  Beck- 
with,  of  the  Topographical  Engineers ;  R.  H.  Kern  and  J.  A. 
Snyder,  topographers;  F.  Creutzfeldt,  botanist;  S.  Homans, 
astronomer;  Dr.  James  Schiel,  surgeon  and  geologist;  Cap- 
tain R.  M.  Morris  and  a  small  company  of  mounted  riflemen, 
acting  as  escort  and  guard  to  the  expedition.  There  were  also 
a  number  of  employes,  including  William  Potter  of  Manti, 
Gunnison's  guide.* 

On  the  24th  of  October  they  encamped  on  the  east  bank 
of  Sevier  River,  about  fifteen  miles  above  the  point  where  it 


*The  next  notable  party  to  pass  through  Utah  was  headed  by  Fre- 
mont, the  explorer.  This  was  in  February,  1854.  The  Pathfinder 
was  then  on  his  final  expedition  to  the  West.  With  him  were  nine 
white  men  and  twelve  Delaware  Indians.  Perishing  with  hunger  and 
cold,  they  were  helped  over  the  mountains  into  the  town  of  Parowan, 
by  some  of  the  hospitable  people  of  Iron  County.  One  man  had.  fal- 
len from  his  horse,  dead,  before  reaching  the  settlements.  Fremont 
remained  at  Parowan  nearly  two  weeks,  before  proceeding  on  to  Cal- 
ifornia. S.  N.  Carvalho,  the  artist  of  the  expedition,  tarried  three 
months  in  Utah,  and  afterwards  gave  the  results  of  his  experience  and 
observations  in  a  book  entitled  "Incidents  of  Travel  and  Adventure 
in  the  War  West." 


104   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

flows  into  the  Lake.  At  Captain  Gunnison's  request,  Lieu- 
tenant Beckwith  and  Captain  Morris,  with  the  main  portion  of 
the  command,  explored  the  country  up  the  river,  while  Gun- 
nison,  with  a  few  men,  crossed  to  the  west  bank  and  followed 
the  stream  down.  On  the  evening  of  the  25th,  he  pitched  his 
tents  among  the  willows  of  the  river  bottom,  at  the  head  of 
Sevier  Lake,  where  a  reconnoisance  was  to  begin  next  morn- 
ing. With  the  Captain  were  Messrs.  Kern  and  Creutzfeldt, 
William  Potter,  James  Bellows,  and  a  corporal  with  six  rifle- 
men. 

Attacked  from  Ambush. — Long  before  sunrise  the  camp 
was  astir,  and  most  of  the  men  were  at  breakfast,  when  sud- 
denly rang  out  the  terrible  war  whoop  of  a  numerous  band  of 
savages,  who  had  crept  unseen  upon  their  unwary  victims. 
From  the  willowy  ambush  they  poured  volley  after  volley  of 
rifle  shots  mingled  with  arrows  in  among  the  campers.  A  call 
to  arms  was  sounded,  and  the  little  band  fought  gallantly,  kill- 
ing one  Indian  and  wounding  another;  but  a  successful  de- 
fense under  such  conditions  was  impossible.  Very  soon,  of 
the  twelve  white  men,  only  four  remained  alive. 

Captain  Gunnison,  at  the  opening  fire,  rushed  from  his 
tent,  raised  his  hands,  and  called  out  to  the  Indians  that  he 
was  their  friend.  He  fell  pierced  with  arrows  and  rifle  balls. 
Kern,  Creutzfeldt,  Potter,  Bellows,  and  three  riflemen  were  also 
slain.  One  of  the  survivors  was  the  Corporal,  who  narrowly 
escaped  capture.  Securing  a  horse,  he  rode  to  the  point  where 
the  company  had  divided,  the  day  before.  The  horse  falling 
exhausted,  its  rider  ran  on  foot  most  of  the  fourteen  miles  still 
between  him  and  the  camp  of  Lieutenant  Beckwith.  He  ar- 
rived there  barely  able  to  communicate  the  frightful  news. 

Honors  to  the  Dead. — Captain  Gunnison  was  buried  at 
Fillmore.  His  death  was  a  shock  and  a  sorrow  to  the  whole 
community.  Governor  Young  referred  to  it  feelingly  in  his 
next  message  to  the  Legislature.  The  Captain,  by  his  fair- 
ness and  friendliness,  had  endeared  himself  to  the  people  of 
Utah,  and  they  sincerely  mourned  his  tragic  end.  The  town 
of  Gunnison,  in  Sanpete  County,  was  named  for  him.  Lieu- 
tenant Beckwith  succeeded  Captain  Gunnison  in  command  of 
the  surveying  expedition,  and  completed  the  work  by  him 
begun. 

End  of  the  War. — Governor  Young  had  made  repeated 
efforts  to  put  an  end  to  the  prevailing  strife.  Almost  at  the 
beginning  of  hostilities,  he  sent  a  written  message  to  "Captain 
Walker,"  telling  him  that  he  was  "a  fool  for  fighting  his  best 
friends."  Along  with  this  message  went  a  gift  of  tobacco,  and 
the  promise  of  a  supply  of  beef  cattle  and  flour  if  he  would 
"send  some  friendly  Indian  down  to  the  settlements."  These 


AN  INDIAN  UPRISING.  105 

overtures  brought  no  response,  but  they  were  supplemented  by 
others  more  successful. 

In  May,  1854,  the  Governor  and  other  leading  men  visited 
Central  Utah,  coming  in  contact  with  the  native  trifres  and  do- 
ing all  in  their  power  to  gain  the  good  will  of  the  hostiles. 
They  took  with  them  several  wagon-loads  of  presents,  de- 
signed especially  for  Walker  and  his  bands.  A  meeting  be- 
tween the  Governor  and  the  Chief  took  place  on  Chicken 
Creek  (Levan).  Walker  was  attended  by  his  principal  braves, 
and  the  Governor  by  his  official  escort.  The  Pauvant  chief 
Kanosh  and  a  number  of  his  tribesmen  were  also  present. 
After  a  long  talk,  and  the  smoking  of  the  pipe  of  peace,  a 
treaty  was  entered  into,  and  hostilities  ceased.* 

So  ended  the  Walker  War,  during  which  a  score  of  white 
people  and  many  Indians  had  been  killed,  and  several  small 
settlements  broken  up,  the  inhabitants  seeking  refuge  in  the 
larger  towns  and  forts,  leaving  their  houses  and  other  im- 
provements to  the  mercy  of  the  marauders.  Santaquin  and 
Spring  City  suffered  most,  the  latter  being  burned  to  the 
ground.  The  war  cost  the  Territory  about  $70,000,  and  in  ad- 
dition the  private  losses  aggregated  nearly  three  times  that 
amount. 

Death  of  Chief  Walker. — Within  a  year  after  peace  was 
restored,  Walker  died  at  Meadow  Creek,  in  Millard  County. 
He  was  buried  by  his  tribesmen,  with  all  his  warlike  weapons 
and  accoutrements.  According  to  Indian  custom,  the  Utes 
killed  two  squaws,  two  Piede  children,  and  fifteen  of  their  best 
horses,  that  the  departed  leader  might  have  company  on  his 
journey  to  "The  Happy  Hunting  Grounds."  They  likewise 
placed  in  the  grave  a  letter  received  by  Walker  the  day  before 
his  death — a  letter  from  Governor  Young,  of  whom  the  dying 
chieftain  spoke  affectionately  in  his  last  hours.  The  once  fierce 
and  implacable  warrior  had  at  last  become  convinced  that  the 
people  of  Utah  were  his  friends,  and  the  peace  treaty  between 
him  and  the  authorities  of  the  Territory  was  faithfully  kept. 
Walker  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Arapeen. 

During  the  peace  talk,  the  two  parties  sat  facing  each  other  from 
opposite  sides  of  an  Indian  tepee.  General  Wells,  while  distributing 
the  gifts,  tossed  to  each  warrior  a  plug  of  tobacco.  His  action,  though 
not  meant  to  offend,  was  very  displeasing  to  the  dignified  Ute  chief- 
tain, whose  eyes  blazed  with  anger.  He  refused  to  lift  his  tobacco 
from  where  it  lay,  remarking  that  he  would  not  have  a  gift  thrown 
to  him,  like  a  bone  to  a  cur.  Whereupon,  General  Wells  good-natur- 
edly took  a  new  plug  of  tobacco  and  presented  it  to  Walker  with  a 
polite  bow.  The  chief's  anger  was  at  once  dispelled.  He  admitted  that 
Governor  Young  was  a  /'big  chief,"  but  insisted  that  he  himself  was 
a  big  chief  also,  emphasizing  and  illustrating  the  point  by  putting  his 
thumbs  together  and  holding  them  up  before  him,  one  as  high  as  the 
other. 


XL 
BRIGHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR. 

1854-1857. 

Petition  for  Re-appointment. — Brigham  Young's  first 
term  as  Governor  of  Utah  now  drew  to  a  close.  Shortly  be- 
fore its  expiration,  the  leading  citizens  of  the  Territory  united 
in  a  petition  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  asking  that 
Governor  Young  be  re-appointed. 

The  first  signer  of  the  petition  was  Chief  Justice  John  F. 
Kinney,  who,  in  August,  1854,  had  succeeded  Chief  Justice 

Reed  on  the  Supreme  Bench 
of  the  Territory.  The  next  to 
sign  was  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Edward  J.  Steptoe,  U.S.A.  He 
had  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City 
on  the  last  day  of  August,  at 
the  head  of  a  detachment  of 
troops,  on  his  way  to  Califor- 
nia. Steptoe's  signature  was 
followed  by  the  names  of  all 
the  Federal,  civic  and  military 
officers  then  in  Utah,  and  by  all 
the  principal  business  men. 
The  petition  was  sent  to  Wash- 
ington, and.  the  Governor's  re- 
appointment  soon  followed.* 

Colonel  Steptoe  and  His 
Command.  —  Colonel  Steptoe 
and  his  men  spent  the  winter  at 
Salt  Lake  City.  The  troops 
numbered  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five,  comprising  two 
companies  of  artillery  and  one 
of  intantry,  while  an  almost 
equal  number  of  employes  had  charge  of  the  animals  and  ve- 
hicles. The  mutual  relations  of  civilians  and  soldiers  were 
mostly  of  an  agreeable  character,  but  between  some  of  the 
latter,  who  were  intoxicated,  and  a  party  of  citizens,  a  fracas 
occurred  on  New  Year's  day  in  which  firearms  were  used  and 

*President  Franklin  Pierce  had  named  Colonel  Steptoe  for  Gover- 
nor, but  he,  after  surveying  the  local  situation,  declined  the  prof- 
fered honor,  and  supported  the  movement  that  for  a  second  time  gave 
the  office  to  the  founder  of  the  Territory. 


JUDGE  KINNEY. 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR.         107 

several  persons  wounded.  Colonel  Steptoe's  officers  helped 
to  quell  the  riot,  striking  with  their  sabers  their  own  men 
until  they  desisted  from  the  brawl.  In  the  evening  of  that 
day  the  Utah  Legislature  gave  a  ball  in  honor  of  the  recently 
arrived  representatives  of  the  Government.* 

The  Gunnison  Massacre  Investigated — Convictions. — 
Colonel  Steptoe,  acting  under  instructions  from  Washington, 
investigated  the  Gunnison  massacre.  Through  the  influence 
of  Governor  Young,  a  number  of  Indians  concerned  in  the 
crime  were  delivered  up  to  justice,  and  it  devolved  upon  Chief 
Justice  Kinney  to  try  them  in  the  District  Court  at  Nephi. 
The  court  was  held  under  the  protection  of  United  States 
troops  detailed  for  that  purpose;  a  precaution  deemed  neces- 
sary, owing  to  the  presence  of  about  one  hundred  Ute  war- 
riors, who  were  encamped  near  by,  watching  with  keen  in- 
terest the  progress  of  the  trial.  Three  Indians  were  convicted 
and  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 

Death  of  Judge  Shaver.— On  the  29th  of  June,  1855,  Judge 
Leonidas  Shaver  died  at  his  residence  in  Salt  Lake  City.  He 
was  found  dead  in  bed,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  having 
retired,  as  usual,  about  midnight.  An  inquest  was  held  at 
which  Doctors  France  and  Hurt,  the  latter  Judge  Shaver's 
medical  attendant,  testified  that  death  had  been  caused  by  an 
abscess  on  the  brain.  The  jury's  verdict  was  in  accordance 
with  these  facts. 

Judge  Shaver,  like  Judge  Reed,  who  had  died  at  Bath, 
New  York,  three  months  before,  was  sincerely  mourned  in 
Utah,  and  the  citizens  united  in  doing  honor  to  his  memory. 
A  public  funeral  was  held  at  the  Council  House,  Chief  Justice 
Kinney  directing,  and  President  Brigham  Young  and  Elder 
Orson  Pratt  taking  part  in  the  service.  At  the  grave  Dr.  Gar- 
land Hurt,  Utah's  new  Indian  agent,  tendered  his  warmest 
thanks  "as  a  fellow  Virginian"  for  the  ceremonies  extended 
on  the  occasion.  The  Deseret  News,  in  a  feeling  reference  to 
Judges  Reed  and  Shaver,  spoke  of  their  appointment  to  office 
in  this  Territory  as  "among  the  many  kind  public  acts  of  Mil- 
lard  Fillmore,  late  President  of  the  United  States,  toward  the 
inhabitants  of  Utah." 

Judges  Kinney,  Drummond,  and  Stiles. — Chief  Justice 
Kinney  succeeded  to  the  good  will  felt  for  his  predecessor.  He 

*Sergeant  John  Tobin,  one  of  Steptoe's  officers,  joined  the  ."Mor- 
mon" Church,  married  a  "Mormon"  girl,  and  remained  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  where  he  taught  a  class  in  sword  exercise.  Others  of  the  mili- 
tary party  abused  the  hospitality  extended  to  them  by  leading  astray 
some  of  the  young  women  of  the  community  who  afterwards  went 
with  them  to  California. 


108   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

resided  in  Utah  until  the  spring  of  1856,  when  he  returned  to 
Iowa,  in  order  to  give  his  children  better  educational  advan- 
tages than  were  possible  in  the  West  at  that  early  period. 
Subsequently  he  returned,  under  a  re-appointment  as  Chief 
Justice,  and  afterwards  served  the  Territory  as  Delegate  in 
Congress.  Judge  Snow,  having  served  out  his  term,  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Associate  Justice  George  P.  Stiles ;  and  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  death  of  Judge  Shaver  was  rilled,  in  the  autumn 
of  1855,  by  the  appointment  of  Associate  Justice  William  W. 
Drummond,  who  was  from  Illinois.  Judge  Stiles  was  formerly 
of  that  State,  but  at  the  time  of  his  appointment  was  a  citizen 
of  Utah. 

The  new  Associate  Justices  were  heartily  disliked.  In 
various  ways  they  made  themselves  obnoxious  to  the  great 
majority  of  the  people.  At  Fillmore,  in  open  court,  Judge 
Drummond  declared  that  the  laws  of  the  Territory  were 
founded  in  ignorance,  and  that  it  was  'his  purpose,  in  all  cases 
appealed  from  the  probate  courts  to  the  tribunal  over  which 
he  presided,  to  set  aside  the  findings,  unless  they  were  within 
the  pale  of  powers  commonly  exercised  by  probate  courts. 
Judge  Stiles  also  manifested  some  unfriendliness  toward  local 
legislation,  particularly  the  law  defining  the  duties  of  the  Ter- 
ritorial Marshal. 

All  this  might  have  been  got  along  with,  had  the  two 
magistrates  conducted  themselves  in  such  a  way  as  to  com- 
mand respect.  Drummond  was  a  dishonest  and  licentious 
man,  and  Stiles  seems  to  have  been  little  better.  At  Nauvoo 
and  at  Salt  Lake  City  he  held  membership  in  the  "Mormon" 
Church,  but  was  finally  excommunicated  for  adultery.  The 
appointment  of  these  dissolute  characters  to  office  in  this  Ter- 
ritory was  a  misfortune  to  all  concerned. 

So  far  as  their  opinion  upon  local  legislation  went, 
nobody  questioned  their  right  to  that.  Moreover,  they 
were  not  alone  in  their  critical  attitude.  Chief  Justice  Kinney 
did  not  hold  with  them,  however,  nor  had  Judges  Reed  and 
Shaver  so  held.  Congress,  to  whom  the  Territorial  legisla- 
tion was  regularly  submitted,  had  not  disapproved  of  the  laws 
relating  to  probate  courts  and  territorial  officers,  but  on  the 
contrary  had  given  them,  by  its  silence,  an  implied  sanction. 

The  Utah-California  Boundary. — It  was  about  this  time 
that  the  boundary  line  between  Utah  and  California  was  de- 
termined. There  was  no  Nevada  then;  the  entire  State  now 
bearing  that  name  being  within  the  Territory  of  Utah.  Col- 
onists from  Salt  Lake  Valley  had  been  making  their  way  to 
the  Carson  region  since  1850  or  1851.  Orson  Hyde  led  a  com- 
pany thither  in  the  spring  of  1855,  and  with  him  went  Judge 
Stiles  and  United  States  Marshal  Heywood;  these  three  hav- 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR.          109 

ing  been  appointed  by  the  Utah  Legislature  to  meet  with  a 
similar  commission  from  California  and  establish  the  boundary 
in  question.  They  also  organized  Carson  County,  under  au- 
'thority  given  them  by  the  people's  representatives. 

The  Educational  Spirit. — The  year  1855  was  notable  for 
the  organization,  at  the  Utah  capital,  of  a  number  of  education- 
al institutions,  among  them  the  Philharmonic,  Polysophical, 
Deseret  Library  and  Musical,  and  Universal  Scientific  soci- 
eties, and  the  Deseret  Theological  Institute.  Also  the  Horti- 
cultural Society,  a  forerunner  of  the  Deseret  Agricultural  and 
Manufacturing  Society,  which,  founded  the  year  following, 
was  destined  to  a  long  and  useful  career.  The  acquisition 
of  foreign  languages  was  encouraged,  and  among  the  publi- 
cations of  the  period  was  a  grammar  of  several  Indian  dia- 
lects. Another  famine  was  impending — for  grasshoppers  and 
drouth  had  been  doing  destructive  work — but  the  people  hun- 
gered not  only  for  physical  food;  a  craving  for  mental  and 
suiritual  nourishment  was  likewise  manifest. 

Remy's  "Journey  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City." — Utah  was 
beginning  to  attract  the  attention  of  noted  travelers  from  va- 
rious countries.  One  of  these,  Jules  Remy,  a  Frenchman,  with 
his  companion,  Julius  Brenchley,  arrived  at  the  capital  of 
the  Territory  in  the  autumn  of  that  year.  They  came  from 
the  West,  having  set  out  from  San  Francisco  on  the  18th 
of  July,  for  the  express  purpose  of  making  "A  Journey  to 
Great  Salt  Lake  City."  Such  was  the  title  given  by  M.  Remy 
to  the  book  he  afterwards  published,  in  which  he  sketches 
interestingly  "the  history,  religion,  and  customs  of  the  Mor- 
mons." By  way  of  Carson  River  and  Tooele  Valley,  he  and 
his  party  reached  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  25th  of  September. 
They  were  guided  by  Peter  Haws,  a  "Mormon"  ranchman. 
They  remained  in  this  vicinity  a  full  month,  and  then  took  the 
southern  route  to  California,  with  Los  Angeles  as  their  objec- 
tive point. 

During  their  sojourn  at  "The  New  Jerusalem,"  as  Remy 
styles  the  Utah  capital,  they  lodged  at  the  Union  Hotel,  which 
was  kept  by  Chief  Justice  Kinney.*  The  high  prices  charged 
for  everything  were  almost  terrifying  to  these  travelers,  but 
they  nevertheless  praised  the  hospitality  they  met  with,  and 
atttributed  "the  high  cost  of  living"  to  the  straightened  period 
through  which  the  Territory  was  passing. 


*The  Union  Hotel  was  "near  J;he  northern  extremity  of  the  city," 
and  was  named  for  its  proximity  to  Union  Square.  The  building  after- 
wards became  the  Union  Academy,  taught  by  Dr.  Doremus,  one  of 
Utah's  early  educators.  Later  it  housed  a  department  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Deseret,  and  still  later  the  Deseret  Hospital. 


110   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

"The  Mormon  Pope,"  as  the  French  traveler  terms  the 
then  leader  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  even  when  accessible  was 
not  over-communicative  to  every  uncredentialed  new  comer 
in  those  days;  and  as  this  party  had  lost  their  letters  of  credit, 
and  had  arrived  without  the  least  means  of  establishing  their 
identity,  their  first  effort  to  secure  a  satisfactory  interview 
with  President  Young  was  a  comparative  failure.  A  second 
attempt,  after  the  latter  had  been  made  acquainted  with  the 
true  character  and  purpose  of  the  visitors,  resulted  in  their 
obtaining  all  that  they  sought.  They  were  vouched  for  by 
James  Lawson,  a  "Mormon"  missionary  whom  they  had  met 
in  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Remy's  book,  in  most  respects,  is 
accurate  and  impartial.  Its  author  was  favorably  impressed 
with  the  greater  part  of  what  he  saw  and  heard  in  Utah,  and 
he  departed  with  friendly  feelings  toward  the  people  in  gen- 
eral.* 

Statehood  Again  Denied. — Utah,  in  1856,  had  a  white  pop- 
ulation of  about  thirty  thousand,  and  in  March  of  that  year 
another  effort  was  put  forth  to  secure  political  sovereignty.  A 
Constitutional  Convention  assembled  at  Salt  Lake  City  and 
petitioned  Congress  to  admit  the  Territory  into  the  Union  as 
the  State  of  Deseret.  Hon.  George  A.  Smith  and  Hon.  John 
Taylor — the  latter  then  editing  "The  Mormon"  in  New  York 
City — carried  the  petition  and  the  proposed  state  constitu- 
tion to  Washington.  Admission  was  again  denied. f 

A  Year  of  Calamities. — Eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-six 
was  a  year  of  calamities  for  Utah.  The  crops  of  two  seasons 
had  failed,  and  another  famine  threatened  the  people.  The 
failure  of  1854  was  owing  to  a  visitation  of  grasshoppers  (lo- 
cubts).  These  were  even  more  destructive  than  the  crickets, 
and  unlike  the  earlier  pests  had  wings  and  could  fly  beyond 
the  reach  of  their  pursuers.  The  following  year  the  locusts 
returned,  and  devoured,  in  many  parts  of  the  land,  every  green 

*Among  the  one  hundred  Utah  "Gentiles" — for  that  is  the  num- 
ber set  down  by  M.  Remy  at  the  period  of  his  visit — he  mentions 
Geneial  Burr,  "an  intelligent  and  worthy  old  man,"  the  Government's 
recently  appointed  Surveyor  General  for  the  Territory;  i.lso  Mr.  W. 
Bell,  managing  partner  of  the  mercantile  house  of  Livingston,  Kin- 
kead  and  Co.,  who,  as  well  as  the  "Mormon"  President,  wa  exceed- 
ingly kind  to  him,  discounting  his  bills  on  San  Francisco  to  any  amount 
required,  without  charging  him  any  commission.  The  author  of  the 
"Journey"  does  not  speak  so  highly  of  Judge  Drummond,  who  cheated 
him  in  a  horse  trade,  and  shocked  him  by  brazenly  declaring:  "Money 
is  my  God,  and  you  can  write  it  down  in  your  journal  if  you  so  de- 
sire." Remy  declares  that  Drummond  was  living  openly  with  a  woman 
who  was  not  his  wife. 

tin  1852  and  again  in  1853.  the  Legislature  had  petitioned  Con- 
gress for  an  Enabling  Act  authorizing  a  St^te  government  for  Utah. 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR.         Ill 

thing  growing.  Added  to  that  plague  was  a  season  of  drouth. 
Then  came  the  winter,  one  of  the  severest  ever  known  in  this 
region,  burying  the  grazing  lands  under  heavy  snows,  and 
causing  the  death  of  thousands  of  cattle,  horses,  and  sheep. 

Privation  and  Benevolence. — During  the  early  months  of 
the  new  year  the  people  suffered  much  privation.  Many  were 
driven  to  the  necessity  of  digging  and  eating  roots — the  sego 
and  other  wild  growths,  to  eke  out  an  existence  until  harvest 
time.  Vast  quantities  of  fish,  taken  with  nets  from  Utah  Lake, 
became  food  for  the  half  famished  people.  All  were  not  alike 
destitute.  Some,  foreseeing  the  straitness,  had  provided 
against  it,  and  their  bins  and  barns  were  full,  while  others 
were  empty.  Those  who  had,  gave  to  those  who*had  not; 
the  full  larders  and  storehouses  being  drawn  upon  to  supply 
the  needy  and  prevent  suffering.* 

The  Tintic  War. — To  add  to  the  general  distress,  some  of 
the  Indians  became  troublesome.  A  Ute  chief  named  Tintic 
led  the  hostiles,  inhabiting  the  valleys  west  of  Utah  Lake. 
They  stole  cattle  from  the  herds,  and  killed  two  herdsmen, 
Henry  Moran  and  Washington  Carson.  A  posse  of  ten  men 
with  writs  issued  by  Judge  Drummond  from  the  District 
Court  at  Provo,  set  out  for  Cedar  Valley  to  arrest  the  murder- 
ers. They  met  with  determined  resistance,  and  an  Indian 
named  Battest  was  killed.  In  the  general  fight  that  followed, 
George  Carson,  one  of  the  posse,  received  a  mortal  wound, 
while  on  the  other  side  a  squaw  was  killed  and  Chief  Tintic 
wounded.  A  few  days  later  the  savages  slew  John  Catlin, 
John  Winn,  and  a  Mr.  Cousins,  near  Kimball's  Creek,  south- 
west of  Utah  Lake.  They  also  captured  and  put  to  death  a 
young  man  named  Hunsaker.  A  force  of  cavalry  under  Colonel 
Conover  was  now  ordered  out  by  the  Governor.  Crossing  the 
ice-covered  lake,  they  pursued  the  Indians,  who  fled  at  their 
approach,  leaving  behind  the  stolen  cattle.  This  ended  ti'~ 
Tintic  War. 

The  savages  engaged  in  the  strife  were  Utes,  but  were 
renegades  from  their  tribe,  for  whose  acts  the  main  body  was 
not  responsible.  The  same  may  be  said  of  a  band  of  Yampa 


*Among  the  most  provident  and  the  most  benevolent  were  Pres- 
ident Heber  C.  Kimball,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  John  Neff,  on  Mill 
Creek.  These  men  and  others  stood  like  so  many  Josephs  in  Egypt 
to  the  hungry  multitude.  They  took  no  advantage  of  the  straightened 
situation,  by  which  they  might  have  profited  financially;  but  sole!  a. 
moderate  prices,  where  they  did  not  give  outright,  their  beef  and 
breadstiiffs,  to  those  able  to  reimburse  them.  When  flour  commanded 
as  high  as  a  dollar  a  pound,  they  would  not  accept  more  than  six  cents, 
nor  sell  at  all  except  to  those  in  need,  refusing  to  speculate  out  of  the 
necessities  of  the  poor. 


112   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Utes,  who,  in  September  of  this  year,  broke  up  a  settlement 
on  Grand  River.*  The  Utes  as  a  whole  respected  the  treaties 
that  they  had  entered  into.  They  had  even  made  peace  with 
their  ancient  foes,  the  Shoshones,  through  the  influence  of 
Governor  Young  and  other  leading  citizens. 

Death  of  Secretary  Babbitt. — During  this  calamitous  year, 
the  Indians  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  attacked  and  robbed 
trains  and  killed  travelers.  Colonel  Almon  W.  Babbitt,  Sec- 
retary of  Utah,  was  slain  while  returning  from  an  official  visit 
to  the  City  of  Washington.  First,  his  train,  loaded  with  Gov- 
ernment property,  was  attacked  and  plundered  by  Cheyenne 
Indians,  near  Wood  River  (Nebraska)  ;  two  of  the  four  team- 
sters being  killed,  and  another  wounded.  The  savages  also 
carried  off  a  Mrs.  Wilson,  and  slew  her  and  her  child. 
Colonel  Babbitt  was  not  with  his  train,  but  was  killed  by 
Cheyennes  east  ot  Fort  Laramie,  about  the  last  of  August. 

The  Margetts-Cowdy  Massacre. — A  few  days  later,  an- 
other outrage  by  Indians  of  the  same  tribe  occurred  west  of 
Fort  Kearney.  Thomas  Margetts  and  wife,  James  Cowdy,  wife 
and  child,  all  from  Salt  Lake  City-,  were  crossing  the  plains  on 
their  way  to  England.  They  had  a  covered  wagon,  two  mules 
and  two  riding  horses.  After  leaving  Fort  Laramie  they  were 
joined  by  Henry  Bauichter,  a  discharged  United  States  soldier, 
who  traveled  with  them  as  far  as  the  scene  of  the  tragedy.  On 
the  sixth  of  September  he  and  Mr.  Margetts  left  camp  to  go 
hunting,  and  early  in  the  afternoon  they  succeeded  in  killing  a 
bison.  A  bluff  was  between  them  and  the  wagon,  the  latter  a 
mile  and  a  half  away.  Margetts  took  a  portion  of  the  meat  to 
camp,  and  half  an  hour  later  Bauichter,  having  secured  more, 
followed.  As  soon  as  he  saw  the  wagon  he  noticed  that  the 
cover  was  gone,  and  on  approaching  nearer  beheld  the  bodies 
of  Mr.  Margetts,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cowdy  and  their  child,  lying  oil 
the  ground.  All  were  dead  but  the  child,  and  it  was  wounded 

*The  Grand  River  settlement  was  about  where  the  town  of  Moab 
now  stands.  The  founders,  forty  mei,,  were  from  Manti,  and  the  col- 
ony was  known  as  the  Elk  Mountain  Mission.  A  little  over  three 
months  after  their  arrival  on  Grand  River,  their  fort  was  attacked  by 
the  Indians,  who  killed  James  W.  Hunt,  William  Behunin,  and  Edward 
Edwards,  and  wounded  Alfred  N.  Billings.  Next  day  the  survivors 
started  back  for  Manti,  arriving  there  six  days  later. 

A  similar  experience  awaited  the  Salmon  River  (Idaho)  Mission, 
founded  in  June  of  the  previous  year  by  a  company  organized  on 
Bear  River,  Utah,  by  Thomas  S.  Smith,  and  led  by  Francillo  Durfee 
to  its  destination.  In  the  midst  of  a  savage  country  they  founded  Fort 
Limhi,  which  was  maintained  until  1858,  when  the  colonists  were 
driven  out  by  hostile  Indians. 

A  mission  was  also  established  at  Las  Vegas  (Nevada)  by  a  com- 
pany under  William  Bringhurst,  with  George  W.  Bean  as  Indian  inter 
preter. 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR.        113 

and  dying.  Mrs.  Margetts  was  missing.  No  shots  had  been 
heard,  but  an  arrow  was  sticking  in  Cowdy's  thigh.  In  the  dis- 
tance, riding  rapidly  away,  was  a  band  of  about  a  dozen  In- 
dians. The  mules  and  horses  had  been  taken,  and  the  wagon 
plundered. 

The  Hand-Cart  Immigration. — The  close  of  the  year 
brought  a  calamity  more  terrible  still.  It  was  the  historic 
hand-cart  disaster,  in  which  upwards  of  two  hundred  "Mor- 
mon" immigrants,  bound  for  Utah,  and  belated  upon  the 
storm-swept  plains,  lost  their  lives.  Most  of  them  were  from 
England,  Scotland,  or  Scandinavia.* 

The  project  of  using  hand-carts  for  the  overland  journey 
from  the  frontier,  originated  in  Utah,  and  was  first  put  into 
effect  for  the  season  of  1856.  It  was  estimated  as  cheaper  and 
more  expeditious  to  cross  the  plains  in  that  manner,  than  with 
ox  teams  and  wagons.  Nine  pounds,  English  money  (equal  to 
about  forty-five  dollars)  was  the  hand-cart  rate  from  Liverpool 
to  Salt  Lake  City.  The  immigrants,  landing  at  Boston  or  New 
York,  would  proceed  thence  to  Iowa  City,  their  outfitting  point 
for  the  journey  over  the  plains.  The  carts,  which  were  made 
on  the  frontier,  could  carry  the  baggage  and  provisions,  and 
the  stronger  men  could  pull  them.  The  idea,  though  novel, 
was  not  startling,  since  most  of  the  travelers  to  Utah,  while 
having  teams  to  draw  their  heavy  wagons,  had  been  trudging 
afoot,  year  after  year,  almost  the  entire  distance  west  of  the 
Missouri  River. 

The  hand-cart  scheme  became  very  popular  in  England, 
and  a  heavy  emigration  resulted,  more  than  could  be  con- 
veniently handled  on  the  Iowa  frontier.  .There  the  belated 
companies  should  have  remained  through  the  winter.  It  was 
an  error  in  judgment  to  send  them  over  the  plains  so  late  in 
the  season. 

Three  Companies  Arrive  Safe. — The  first  of  the  hand-cart 
companies  to  arrive  in  Utah  were  two  led  by  Edmund  Ells- 
worth and  Daniel  D.  McArthur.  They  had  left  Iowa  City, 
one  on  the  9th,  and  the  other  on  the  llth,  of  June;  the  former 
with  226  persons,  the  latter  with  220.  They  had  nearly  a 

*A  disaster  of  earlier  date,  likewise  connected  with  the  Utah  im- 
migration, was  the  blowing  up  of  the  steamboat  "Saluda,"  on  the  Mis- 
souri River,  in  April,  1852.  The  accident  occurred  near  Lexington, 
Mo.,  and  was  due  to  the  forcing  of  cold  water  into  the  boilers,  which, 
during  a  detention  of  several  days  near  an  ice-floe,  had  been  allowed 
to  get  dry  and  red  hot.  While  the  engineers  were  thus  "getting  up 
steam,"  there  was  an  explosion,  and  in  ten  minutes  the  boat  sank. 
The  lost  passengers  numbered  about  175,  ninety  of  whom  were  Lat- 
ter-day Saints,  en  route  for  Utah.  Eli  B.  Kelsey  was  in  charge  of  the 
company,  but,  with  others  belonging  to  it,  happened  to  be  ashore  when 
the  r.ccident  took  place,  * 


114   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

hundred  hand-carts,  with  a  few  ox  and  mule  wagons.  Men, 
women,  and  children  walked  most  of  the  way,  wading  rivers, 
crossing  deserts,  and  climbing  mountains,  a  distance  of  thir- 
teen hundred  miles.  A  few  deaths  occurred  among  the  aged 
and  sickly,  but  the  great  body  arrived  safe  and  in  good  condi- 
tion. 

The  journey  had  taken  a  little  over  three  months,  and 
could  have  been  accomplished  in  less  time,  but  for  the  break- 
ing down  of  some  of  the  hand-carts,  which,  made  of  unsea- 
soned timber,  were  unable  to  bear  the  strain  of  a  long  trip  over 
the  sandy,  sun-heated  plains.  Moreover,  many  of  the  vehicles 


A  HAND-CART  TRAIN. 

were  not  ready  when  needed,  and  this  caused  delay  at  the  be- 
ginning. The  date  of  arrival  at  Salt  Lake  City  was  the  26th 
of  September.  A  third  company,  under  Captain  Edward 
Bunker,  came  in  on  the  2nd  of  October. 

Belated,  on  the  Plains. — Two  other  companies,  traveling 
in  like  manner,  were  still  on  the  plains.  One  of  these  was 
commanded  by  James  G.  Willie,  and  the  other  by  Edward 
Martin.  Captain  Willie  left  Iowa  City  on  the  15th  of  July, 
and  Florence  (old  Winter  Quarters)  on  the  19th  of  August. 
Captain  Martin  was  about  two  weeks  behind. 

Relief  Parties. — The  early  approach  of  cold  weather  in 
Utah  awoke  fears  for  the  safety  of  the  immigrants,  and  forth- 
with relief  parties  were  organized  and  sent  out  to  meet  them. 
Scores  of  brave  men,  taking  wagon  loads  of  clothing,  bedding 
and  provisions,  went  forth  to  rescue  their  unfortunate 
fellows,  struggling  through  deep  snows  and  piercing  winds 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR.         115 

along  the  Platte  and  the  Sweetwater.  Among  those  who 
went  out  to  meet  the  immigrants  were  several  returned  mis- 
sionaries, just  home  from  Europe.  Traveling  west  they,  with 
others,  had  overtaken  and  passed  the  delayed  companies,  and 
upon  arriving  at  Salt  Lake  City  had  reported  their  condition, 
and  then  returned  to  succor  them.* 

The  Story  of  the  Disaster. — The  story  told  by  the  sur- 
vivors is  pathetic  in  the  extreme.  John  Chislett,  of  Willie's 
company,  and  John  Jacques,  of  Martin's  command,  published 
graphic  accounts  of  their  experiences,  as  did  also  Josiah  Rog- 
erson  at  a  later  period. 

According  to  these  chroniclers,  men  and  women,  pulling 
loaded  hand-carts,  or  carrying  little  children,  and  helping  along 
the  aged  and  feeble,  traveled  on  in  misery  day  after  day.  At 
times  they  made  good  progress,  but  as  a  rule  only  a  few  miles 
between  sunrise  and  sundown.  Thinly  clad  and  poorly  fed, 
they  were  ill  prepared  for  the  hardships  of  the  long  and  weari- 
some journey.  When  provisions  became  low,  they  had  to  be 
put  upon  rations,  which  gradually  grew  less  as  the  immigrants 
grew  hungrier  and  weaker. 

Early  in  the  journey  many  of  the  hand-carts  began  to 
break  down.  Having  been  made  with  wooden  axles  and  leather 
boxes,  they  soon  became  rickety  and  unserviceable,  especially 
on  the  rough  roads  near  the  mountains.  Frequent  repairs 
were  necessary,  resulting  in  additional  delay.  There  being  no 
axle  grease  in  camp,  some  of  the  immigrants  used  their  supply 
of  bacon  to  lubricate  the  vehicles.  Unable  at  last  to  draw  the 
heavy  loads,  they  were  compelled  to  lighten  their  luggage  by 
casting  away  bedding  and  clothing  that  were  needed  more  and 
more  as  the  weather  grew  colder.  Death  after  death  occurred, 
until  the  path  of  the  pilgrims  could  almost  be  traced  by  a  trail 
of  new-made  graves.  Snow  fell,  and  shrill  winds  blew  furious- 
ly about  the  worn  and  weary  travelers.  But  they  dared  not 
stop,  lest  a  worse  fate  might  befall  them. 

To  the  Rescue. — One  day,  during  the  noon  halt,  a  light 
wagon  drove  into  camp,  with  two  young  men — Joseph  A. 
Young  and  Stephen  Taylor — from  Salt  Lake  City.  They  an- 
nounced that  a  train  of  supplies  was  on  the  way.  Says  the 
Chistlett  narrative:  "More  welcome  messengers  never  came 
from  the  courts  of  glory  than  these  two  young  men  were  to  us. 
They  lost  no  time,  after  encouraging  us  all  they  could  to. 
press  forward,  but  sped  on  further  east,  to  convey  their  glad 
news  to  Edward  Martin  and  the  fifth  hand-cart  company,  who 


*Thc  missionary  party,  as  it  left  the  frontier,  included  Elders 
Franklin  D.  Richards,  Daniel  Spencer,  and  Cyrus  IT.  Wheelock,  late 
presidency  of  the  European  Mission;  also  George  D.  Grant  and  Wil- 
liam H.  Kimball,  advance  agents  for  that  season's  immigration. 


116   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

had  left  Florence  about  two  weeks  after  us,  and  who,  it  was 
feared,  were  even  worse  off  than  we  were.  As  they  went  from 
our  view,  many  a  hearty  'God  bless  you'  followed  them." 

The  first  relief  party  encountered  the  same  storm  that 
spent  its  fury  on  the  immigrants,  and  not  knowing  of  their 
utter  destitution,  it  encamped  to  await  favorable  weather. 
Captain  Willie,  leaving  his  wagons,  went  out  to  meet  this 
party,  and  upon  hearing  his  urgent  story,  they  hitched  up 
their  teams  and  made  all  haste  to  the  rescue.* 

Martin's  Ravine. — Martin's  camp  was  found  late  in  Oc- 
tober, between  the  Platte  and  the  Sweetwater.  These  immi- 
grants had  waded  the  cold  waters  of  the  river,  and  set  up  their 
tents  amid  piercing  winds  and  a  driving  snow  storm.  Scrap- 
ing away  the  deep  snow  with  tin  plates  or  frying  pans — for 
they  had  no  shovels — they  were  so  weak  they  could  scarcely 
drive  the  tent  pegs  into  the  hard,  frozen  ground.  They  had 
about  given  up  hope,  and  had  settled  down  to  die  amid  their 
bleak  surroundings.  Scores  of  deaths  had  already  occurred, 
and  many  a  grave  had  been  dug  and  filled  by  the  wayside. 
Martin's  Ravine,  as  the  camp  was  called,  became  a  cemetery 
before  the  survivors  left  it.  When  relief  came,  the  scene  of 
joy  and  thanksgiving  already  described  was  repeated. 

*The  scene  of  joy  attending  the  arrival,  at  sunset,  of  four  covered 
wagons,  containing  food,  clothing,  and  other  supplies  for  the  half- 
starved,  half-frozen  travelers,  is  eloquently  described  by  Mr.  Chislett, 
who  was  a  "Mormon"  at  the  time  of  the  disaster,  though  he  subse- 
quently left  the  Church.  Says  he: 

"The  news  ran  through  the  camp  like  wild-fire,  and  all  who  were 
able  to  leave  their  beds  turned  out  en  masse  to  see  them.  A  few  min- 
utes brought  them  sufficiently  near  to  reveal  our  faithful  Captain 
slightly  in  advance  of  the  train.  Shouts  of  joy  rent  the  air;  strong 
men  wept  till  tears  ran  freely  down  their  furrowed  and  sunburnt 
cheeks,  and  little  children  partook  of  the  joy,  which  some  of  them 
hardly  understood,  and  fairly  danced  around  with  gladness.  Restraint 
was  set  aside  in  the  general  rejoicing."  When  the  rescuers  entered 
the  camp,  the  women  fell  upon  them  and  deluged  them  with  kisses. 
The  brave  fellows  were  so  completely  overcome  that  for  some  mo- 
ments they  could  utter  no  word,  but  in  choking  silence  repressed  the 
emotions  that  mastered  them.  "Soon,  however,  feeling  was  somewhat 
abated,  and  such  a  shaking  of  hands,  such  words  of  welcome,  and  such 
invocations  of  God's  blessing  have  seldom  been  witnessed." 

"After  arriving  in  the  valley,"  continues  Mr.  Chislettt,  "I  found 
that  President  Young,  on  learning  from  the  brethren  who  passed  us 
on  the  road  of  the  lateness  of  our  leaving  the  frontier,  set  to  work  at 
once  to  send  us  relief.  It  was  the  October  Conference  when  they 
arrived  with  the  news.  Brigham  at  once  suspended  all  conference  bus.- 
iness,  and  declared  that  nothing  further  should  be  done  until  every 
available  team  was  started  out  to  meet  us.  He  set  the  example  by 
sending  several  of  his  best  mule  teams  laden  with  provisions.  Heber 
Kimball  did  the  same,  and  hundreds  of  others  followed  their  noble 
example." 


BR1GHAM  YOUNG  AGAIN  GOVERNOR.          117 

Crossing  the  Sweetwater. — It  was  about  the  middle  of 
November  when  the  last  of  the  hand-carts  crossed  the  Sweet- 
water.  The  stream  at  that  point  was  only  two  feet  deep,  "but 
the  water  was  intensely  cold,  with  three  or  four  inches  of  ice 
on  the  surface.  Many  of  the  immigrants  waded,  as  did  also 
the  rescuers,  the  latter  carrying  on  their  back  women,  chil- 
dren, and  the  weak  or  disabled  men.* 

A  Typical  Incident. — The  Jacques  narrative  preserves 
the  following  typical  incident  of  that  tragic  journey.  In  the 
rear  of  the  train  a  man  and  his  wife  were  pulling  along  one 
of  the  hand-carts.  When  they  reached  the  river,  the  man,  who 
was  much  worn  down,  asked  plaintively,  "Must  we  go  across 
there?"  On  being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  burst  into 
tears,  exclaiming,  "Oh!  dear,  I  can't  go  through  that."  His 
wife,  who  had  the  stouter  heart  of  the  two,  said  soothingly, 
"Don't  cry,  Jimmie,  I'll  pull  the  hand-cart  for  you" — and  into 
the  icy  stream  she  strode. 

The  Journey  Ends. — West  of  South  Pass  the  extreme 
cold  moderated,  and  relief  wagons  were  frequently  encoun- 
tered. In  Martin's  company,  while  it  was  passing  down  Echo 
Canyon,  a  babe  was  born,  and  one  of  the  relief  corps  contrib- 
uted part  of  his  under-linen  to  help  clothe  the  little  stranger — 
a  girl.  She  was  named  Echo. 

Captain  Willie  reached  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  9th  of  No- 
vember, and  Martin  three  weeks  later.  His  command  num- 
bered at  starting  five  or  six  hundred  persons,  about  one- 
fourth  of  whom  perished.  Willie,  out  of  four  or  five  hundred, 
lost  seventy-seven.  The  event  filled  Utah  with  gloom,  and 
carried  sadness  into  many  a  home  beyond  the  sea.  Other 
hand-cart  companies  crossed  the  plains,  both  ways,  during 
succeeding  years;  but  never  again  did  one  start  late  in  the 
season. 

Governor  Young's  second  term  closed  in  the  midst  of  an 
episode  which  threatened  at  one  time  overwhelming  calamity 
to  Utah.  But  the  tragic  issue  was  happily  averted.  The  de- 
tails of  that  episode,  the  opening  phases  of  which  belong  to 
the  year  1857,  are  reserved  for  succeeding  chapters. 


*David  P.  Kimball,  George  W.  Grant,  Stephen  Taylor,  and  C. 
Allen  Huntington  are  mentioned  by  Mr.  Jacques  as  having  performed 
this  heroic  service.  Others  prominently  mentioned  as  belonging  to 
the  relief  parties  are  Ephraim  K.  Hanks,  William  H.  Kimball,  Cyrus 
H.  Wheelock,  James  Ferguson,  Abel  Garr,  Daniel  W.  Jones,  Th'omas 
Alexander,  Ben  Hampton,  Robert  T.  Burton,  Charles  Decker,  G.  G. 
Webb,  "Hosea  Stout,  Isaac  Bullock  and  Joseph  Simmons.  The  names 
of  others  equally  worthy  have  been  lost.  The  relief  corps  was  mostly 
from  Salt  Lake,  Davis,  and  Tooele  counties.  The  people  at  Fort 
Supply  were  also  active  in  extending  aid. 


XII. 

THE  COMING  OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY. 

1857. 

An  Alleged  Rebellion. — The  Territory  of  Utah  was  com- 
pleting the  seventh  year  of  its  existence,  when  a  serious 
misunderstanding  arose  between  the  people  of  this  common- 
wealth and  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  It  resulted 
in  what  is  commonly  called  "The  Echo  Canyon  War."  The 
trouble  was  caused  by  false  reports  of  a  rebellion  in  Utah,  and 
the  sending  of  Federal  troops  to  put  down  the  alleged  uprising. 
The  coming  of  the  troops,  and  the  resistance  offered  by  the 
Territorial  militia  to  their  armed  and  forcible  entrance  into 
Salt  Lake  Valley,  constituted  the  "war"  in  question.  The  epi- 
sode is  known  in  national  history  as  "The  Utah  Expedition." 

The  Drummond  Charges. — One  of  the  main  causes  of  the 
misunderstanding  was  a  letter  written  by  Judge  William  W. 
Drummond  to  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  charg- 
ing that  the  Supreme  Court  records  at  Salt  Lake  City  had  been 
destroyed  with  the  direct  knowledge  and  approval  of  Governor 
Brigham  Young;  that  Federal  officers  had  been  grossly  in- 
sulted for  questioning  the  treasonable  act;  and  that  a  condition 
of  affairs  existed  calling  for  a  change  of  Governors  and  for 
military  aid  to  enable  the  new  Executive  to  perform  the  duties 
of  his  office. 

These  were  grave  charges ;  but  even  worse  were  made. 
Judge  Drummond  intimated  that  the  murder  of  Captain  Gun- 
nison,  the  death  of  Judge  Shaver,  and  the  killing  of  Secretary 
Babbitt  had  all  been  done  by  advice  and  direction  of  the  lead- 
ing authorities  of  the  "Mormon"  Church;  and  he  asserted  that 
all  who  opposed  those  authorities,  in  any  manner  whatsoever, 
were  harassed,  insulted,  and  even  murdered,  by  their  orders  or 
under  their  influence.  "These  reasons,"  said  he,  "with  many 
others  that  I  might  give  which  would  be  too  heart-rending  to 
insert  in  this  communication,  have  induced  me  to  resign  the 
office  of  Justice  of  the  Territory  of  Utah  and  again  return  to 
my  adopted  State  of  Illinois."* 

Judge  Drummond's  letter  was  dated  March  30,  1857.  Its 
writer,  after  holding  court  for  Judge  Stiles  in  Carson  County, 
passed  thence  into  California,  and  libeled  the  people  of 
Utah  in  the  papers  of  that  State.  He  then  proceeded  by  the 

*The  investigation  of  the  Gunnison  massacre  by  Colonel  Steptoe, 
and  the  conviction  in  Judge  Kinney's  court  of  several  Indians  con- 
cerned in  that  crime,  have  already  been  mentioned.  The  general  sor- 
row felt  over  Captain  Gunnison's  fate,  and  the  honors  paid  to  his  mem- 


THE  COMING  OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY.         119 

Panama  route  to  New  Orleans,  and  from  that  city  sent  the 
letter  enclosing  his  resignation  to  the  Attorney-General. 

An  Unsavory  Record. — The  Drummond  charges  were  at 
once  denied,  and  their  author  was  accused  of  acting  from  mo- 
tives of  revenge,  owing  to  an  exposure  of  gross  immorality 
which  had  caused  all  Utah  to  ring  with  his  shame.  It  trans- 
pired that  Judge  Drummond  had  abandoned  a  respectable 
family  in  Illinois,  and  had  brought  with  him  across  the  plains 
a  common  courtezan,  whom  he  introduced  as  his  wife.  He 
took  this  woman  with  him  on  his  travels,  and  even  had  her 
sit  with  him  upon  the  Bench  while  he  dispensed  justice  to  the 
people  and  lectured  them  on  the  short-comings  of  their  legis- 
lators. Relatives  of  the  real  Mrs.  Drummond,  seeing  the  pub- 
lished notice  of  her  arrival  at  Salt  Lake  City,  called  to  see  her 
and  discovered  the  disgraceful  truth.*  The  culprit,  finding 
himself  socially  ostracised,  concluded  to  resign  his  office  and 
leave  the  Territory.  "The  whole  of  his  conduct,"  says  T.  B. 
H.  Stenhouse,  a  non-"Mormon"  writer,  "was  a  gross  insult  to 
the  Government  which  he  represented,  and  the  people  among 
whom  he  was  sent  to  administer  law.  For  any  contempt  the 
Mormons  exhibited  towards  such  a  man,  there  is  no  need  of 
apology."f 

ory  by  the  Governor  and  Legislature,  have  also  been  touched  upon. 
In  addition,  it  may  be  stated  that  Governor  Young  wrote  to  the  Cap- 
tain's widow  a  kind  and  consolatory  letter,  expressing  his  grief  over 
the  tragedy  and  enclosing  a  lock  of  her  husband's  hair,  stating  that  he 
regretted  his  inability,  owing  to  the  condition  in  which  the  body  was 
found,  to  send  it  East  for  burial.  Mrs.  Gunnison  and  the  family  were 
fully  convinced  of  the  truth — that  the  Indians  alone  were  responsible. 
The  main  facts  in  the  case,  as  related  by  Lieutenant  Beckwith  of  the 
Gunnison  party,  and  published  in  the  "Deseret  News"  shortly  after  the 
massacre,  are  set  forth  in  Chapters  X  and  XI,  this  History.  Chapter 
XI  also  contains  a  true  account  of  Judge  Shaver's  death  and  the  kill- 
ing of  Secretary  Babbitt.  The  Secretary's  brother-in-law,  who  was 
editor  of  the  Crescent  City  (Iowa)  "Oracle,"  after  a  full  investigation, 
published  in  that  paper,  May  22,  1857,  the  facts  respecting  the  tragic 
death  of  his  relative.  They  had  previously  appeared  in  the  Council 
Bluffs  "Eagle,"  and  were  copied  into  the  "Millennial  Star"  (Vol.  18,  pp. 
686  and  823).  The  investigation  proved  beyond  a  doubt  thai;  Colonel 
Babbitt  had  been  killed  by  Indians;  the  savages  themselves  confessing 
the  crime.  And  yet  it  continues  to  be  charged  upon  the  "Mormon" 
Church  by  nearly  all  anti-"Mormon"  writers. 

*These  relatives  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Silas  Richards.  Drummond, 
when  questioned  by  them,  represented  that  his  wife  in  Illinois  had 
been  divorced  from  him.  The  Richards  couple  then  communicated 
with  that  lady,  who  wrote  them  a  letter  denying  the  divorce  and  ex- 
posing her  husband's  illicit  relations  with  "the  Carroll  woman."  This 
letter  was  published  in  the  "Deseret  News,"  May  20,  1857.  By  that  • 
time  Drummond  had  left  Utah. 

tThe  passage  quoted  is  from  a  book  written  by  Mr.  Stenhouse, 
entitled  "The  Rocky  Mountain  Saints,"  published  in  New  York  City 
in  1873.  The  author  had  been  a  prominent  "Mormon,"  but  was  then 
a  seceder  from  the  Church. 


120   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Clerk  Bolton's  Denial. — As  soon  as  the  charges  were  pub- 
lished and  the  news  could  reach  Salt  Lake  City,  Curtis  E. 
Bolton,  Deputy  Clerk  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  of 
Utah,  wrote  to  the  Attorney-General  over  his  official  signa- 
ture and  seal,  testifying  that  the  records  alleged  to  have  been 
destroyed  were  safe  in  his  keeping;  and  he  offered  to  refute 
by  records,  dates,  and  facts,  all  that  Judge  Drummond  had 
asserted. 

Precipitate  Action. — It  was  too  late.  The  charges  had 
been  accepted  as  true.  Before  the  Bolton  letter  could  reach 
Washington,  a  new  set  of  Federal  officers  had  been  appointed 
for  Utah,  and  an  army  ordered  to  the  Territory  to  assist  them 
in  maintaining  the  .authority  of  the  Federal  Government. 

The  Magraw  Letter. — The  National  Administration,  in  this 
rather  hasty  movement —  for  no  investigation  had  preceded  it 
— did  not  act  solely  upon  the  sensational  story  told  by  Judge 
Drummond.  In  October,  1856,  W.  M. 
F.  Magraw,  of  Independence,  Mis- 
souri, had  written  to  President  James 
Buchanan,  representing  that  in  Utah 
there  was  "left  no  vestige  of  law  and 
order,  no  protection  for  life  or  proper- 
ty." He  declared  that  the  civil  laws  of 
the  Territory  were  "overshadowed  and 
neutralized  by  a  so-styled  ecclesias- 
tical organization,  as  despotic,  danger- 
ous and  damnable"  as  had  ever  been 
known  to  exist  in  any  country,  and 
'which  was  ruining  not  only  those  who 
did  not  subscribe  to  their  religious 
code,  but  was  "driving  the  moderate 
and  more  orderly  of  the  Mormon  com- 
munity to  desperation."  No  class  was 
exempt  from  outrage;  all  alike  were 
"set  upon  by  the  self-constituted  theocracy,"  whose  "laws  or 
conspiracies"  were  "framed  in  dark  corners,  promulgated  from 
the  stand  of  tabernacle  or  church,  and  executed  at  midnight 
or  upon  the  highways  by  an  organized  band  of  bravos  and  as- 
sassins."* 

The  Y.  X.  Company.— The  writer  of  this  inflammatory 
epistle  posed  as  a  personal  friend  to  President  Buchanan.  He 

*Allusion  is  here  made  to  the  fabled  "Danite  Band,"  which  plays 
so  prominent  a  part  in  most  anti-"Mormon"  writings.  Dr.  Sampson 
Avard,  at  Far  West,  Missouri,  and  John  C.  Bennett,  at  Nauvoo,  Illi- 
nois, both  excommunicated  from  the  "Mormon"  Church  for  various 
acts  of  wickedness,  were  the  originators  of  this  sensational  slander. 


PRESIDENT  BUCHANAN. 


THE  COMING  OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY.          121 

was  an  ex-mail  contractor  who,  with  his  partner,  J.  M.  Hock- 
aday,  had  been  conducting  a  mail  service  between  Independ- 
ence and  Salt  Lake  City.  The  service  was  unsatisfactory,  and 
when  the  Hockaday-Magraw  contract  expired,  a  new  one  was 
awarded  by  the  Government  to  Hiram  Kimball,  a  "Mormon/' 
he  having  underbid  all  competitors,  including  the  former  con- 
tractors. The  Kimball  contract  became  the  basis  of  "The 
Brigham  Young  Express  Carrying  Company"  (abbreviated  to 
"The  Y.  X.  Company")  which  proposed  to  carry  a  regular 
monthly  mail  and  transport  passengers  and  freight  between 
the  Missouri  River  and  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  enterprise, 
which  was  not  exclusively  "Mormon,"  several  "Gentile"  busi- 
ness men  being  connected  with  it,  was  launched  in  January, 
1856,  and  toward  the  close  of  that  year  the  Magraw  letter 
found  its  way  to  Washington. 

Other  Complaints. — Still  another  complaint  against  al- 
leged undesirable  conditions  in  Utah  had  been  made  by  Asso- 
ciate Justice  George  P.  Stiles.  As  previously  stated,  this  man 
had  been  a  "Mormon,"  but  had  lost  his  standing  in  the  Church 
on  account  of  immoral  conduct.  Following  a  disagreement 
between  him  and  several  "Mormon"  attorneys,  whom  he  ac- 
cused of  threatening  his  court,  Judge  Stiles  filed  at  Washing- 
ton an  affidavit  that  gave  color  to  some  of  Drummond's 
charges.  Stiles,  as  well  as  Drummond,  represented  that  the 
Utah  court  records  had  been  destroyed.  Bolton's  reply  to 
Drummond,  therefore,  was  equally  an  answer  to  Stiles  upon 
that  point.* 

Indian  Agent  Hurt. — Doctor  Garland  Hurt,  Utah's  Indian 
Agent,  likewise  lent  the  weight  of  his  influence  at  Washington 
against  the  Latter-day  Saints.  He  did  more.  After  the  begin- 
ning of  hostilities,  having  joined  the  Federal  troops  under  safe 
conduct  from  Governor  Young,  he  visited  some  of  the  Indian 
tribes  and  endeavored  to  incite  them  against  the  Utah  set- 
tlers.f 


*The  court  incident  occurred  in  February,  1857.  The  disagree- 
ment was  over  the  rival  claims  of  the  United  States  marshal  and  the 
Territorial  marshal,  in  the  matter  of  serving  writs  and  empaneling 
juries.  Judge  Stiles  held  that  it  was  the  right  of  the  U.  S.  marshal  to 
perform  such  service  whether  the  court  was  transacting  business  for 
the  United  States  or  for  the  Territory  of  Utah.  The  attorneys  took 
sharp  issue  with  the  Judge,  using  language  construed  by  him  as  in- 
tending to  intimidate.  Instead  of  fining  them,  Stiles  suddenly  ad- 
journed court,  and  used  the  incident  as  a  weapon  against  the  "Mor- 
mon" community.  He  complained  that  Governor  Young,  when  ap- 
pealed to  by  him,  manifested  contemptuous  indifference  over  the 
matter. 

tit  was  believed  that  the  savages  who  broke  up  the  Salmon  River 
Colony  in  1858  were  influenced  by  white  men  unfriendly  to  the  "Mor- 
mons." 


122    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Little  and  Hanks. — Information  respecting  the  Govern- 
ment's purpose  to  send  troops  to  this  Territory  came  to  the 
ears  of  two  Utah  men,  Feramorz  Little  and  Ephraim  Hanks,  as 
early  as  February,  1857.  Late  that  month  they  arrived  with 
the  mail  at  Independence,  having  crossed  the  plains  under  a 
special  arrangement  with  the  postmaster  of  Salt  Lake  City ; 
Hockaday  and  Magraw  having  failed  to  properly  close  their 
contract.  Through  the  non-arrival  of  the  mails  in  Utah,  Mr. 
Kimball  had  not  learned,  up  to  the  time  that  Little  and  Hanks 
left  home,  of  the  acceptance  of  his  bid  by  the  Government. 
Immediately  upon  receipt  of  the  notice,  preparations  to  begin 
proceedings  under  the  new  contract  were  vigorously  pushed ; 
so  much  so  that  the  establishment  by  the  Express  Company  of 
a  mail  station  on  the  Upper  Platte  was  reported  to  the  Govern- 
ment by  Indian  Agent  Twiss,  in  the  Deer  Creek  region,  as  a 
forceful  "Mormon"  invasion  of  the  Sioux  Indian  reservation. 
Mayor  Smoot  Brings  the  Tidings. — The  news  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  troops  was  brought 
to  Utah  by  Abraham  O.  Smoot, 
Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City. 
While  in  the  East  as  an  agent 
of  the  Y.  X.  Company,  he 
learned  from  Feramorz  Little 
at  Fort  Laramie,  and  after- 
wards at  the  office  of  a  Govern- 
ment contractor  in  Kansas 
City,  that  Brigham  Young  had 
been  superseded  as  Governor; 
that  a  new  set  of  Federal  offi- 
cers had  been  appointed  for  the 
Territory;  and  that  an  army 
would  accompany  them  to  the 
Utah  capital.  He  also  ascer- 
tained that  certain  freight 
wagons  belonging  to  Contrac- 
tor" William  H.  Russell,  and 
which  he  had  encountered  on 
the  plains,  were  loaded  with 
army  supplies,  a  portion  of  the 
equipment  of  the  Expedition. 
These  reports  were  confirmed  at  Independence,  where  the 
postmaster  refused  to  deliver  the  mails  for  the  West,  stating 
that  he  was  acting  under  orders  from  Washington. 

Accepting  this  statement  as  conclusive,  Mayor  Smoot  and 
Nicholas  Groesbeck,  the  latter  in  charge  of  the  Y.  X.  Com- 
pany's business  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  route,  decided  to 
break  up  the  recently  established  mail  stations  and  move  the 


MAYOR  SMOOT 


THE  COMING  OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY.          123 

outfits  westward.  The  Mayor,  to  avoid  excitement,  at  first 
proceeded  leisurely,  gathering  up  the  property  as  he  went.  On 
the  17th  of  July  he  reached  Fort  Laramie,  and  from  that  point 
set  out  with  all  speed  for  Salt  Lake  City.  The  distance  was 
over  five  hundred  miles,  but  in  a  light  spring  wagon  drawn 
by  four  fast  horses,  he  and  his  companions,  Judson  L.  Stod- 
dard  and  Orrin  Porter  Rockwell,  accomplished  the  journey  in 
five  days  and  three  hours,  arriving  at  their  destination  on  the 
evening  of  July  23rd.  The  news  they  brought  was  delivered 
to  Governor  Young  about  mid-day  of  the  24th. 

The  Silver  Lake  Celebration. — It  was  the  tenth  anniver- 
sary of  the  arrival  of  the  Pioneers  in  Salt  Lake  Valley,  and 
the  Governor,  with  about  twenty-six  hundred  people,  resi- 
dents of  the  capital  and  neighboring  settlements,  were  in  the 
midst  of  a  peaceful  celebration  of  that  event,  when  the  word 
came  that  an  army  was  marching  to  Utah  to  put  down  a  re- 
bellion against  the  Government.  The  celebration  was  held 


SILVER  LAKE. 

on  the  banks  of  Silver  Lake,  at  the  head  of  Big  Cottonwood 
Canyon.  From  two  lofty  mountain  peaks  and  some  of  the 
tallest  trees  surrounding  the  encampment,  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  had  been  unfurled,  and  early  in  the  day  the  people  had 
assembled  in  spacious  boweries  to  be  addressed  by  their  lead- 
ers. Prayer  was  offered,  the  choir  sang,  bands  played,  cannon 
roared,  and  the  military  performed  their  evolutions.  Dancing, 
boating,  feasting,  games,  and  other  innocent  amusements  fol- 
lowed. While  the  festivities  were  at  their  height,  four  men 
rode  into  camp,  seeking  the  presence  of  Governor  Young. 


124   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Three  of  them  were  Mayor  Smoot,  Judson  Stoddard,  and 
Porter  Rockwell,  the  Y.  X.  messengers  from  the  East.  Their 
companion  was  Judge  Elias  Smith,  postmaster  of  Salt  Lake 
City. 

How  the  News  was  Received. — Governor  Young,  upon  re- 
ceiving the  tidings  brought  by  the  messengers,  called  a  council 
of  leading  men  and  laid  the  subject  before  them.  There  was 
no  outward  excitement,  whatever  the  inward  agitation.  The 
main  body  of  the  campers  were  not  even  informed  until  they 
had  assembled  for  evening  prayer,  when  General  Wells  at  the 
Governor's  request  spoke  to  them  briefly,  giving  the  news  and 
instructing  them  as  to  the  order  in  which  they  should  leave 
the  camp-ground  next  morning.  Benediction  was  then  pro- 
nounced, and  the  assemblage  dispersed. 

To  the  community  at  large,  the  warlike  rumor  could  not 
but  be  of  an  exciting  character.  The  announcement  that  a  hos- 
tile army  was  approaching  would  have  been  startling  at  any 
time,  but  on  that  day  of  days,  when  the  people  were  praising 
God  for  their  deliverance  from  past  sorrows  and  their  establish- 
ment in  a  land  of  peace,  it  came  with  tenfold  force.  As  inter- 
preted by  them,  it  meant  another  attempt  to  despoil  them  and 
drive  them  from  their  hard-earned  homes. 

Extreme  Views. — This  Avas  an  extreme  view,  but  no  more 
extreme  than  the  view  taken  by  the  Government  relative  to  a 
rebellion  in  Utah.  The  avowed  object  of  the  National  Author- 
ities was  to  give  the  new  executive  and  his  fellow  officers  a 
military  arm  to  protect  and  assist  them  in  the  performance  of 
their  duties.  Those  officers,  aided  by  the  troops,  were  not  to 
create  chaos,  but  to  restore  order;  not  to  make  war  upon  the 
people,  but  to  preserve  peace  and  maintain  the  supremacy 
of  law.*  Such,  however,  was  the  tension  of  those  times  that 


*The  instructions  to  the  commander  of  the  Expedition  contained 
these  sentences:  "The  community,  and,  in  part,  the  civil  government 
of  Utah  Territory  are  in  a  state  of  substantial  rebellion  against  the 
laws  and  authority  of  the  United  States.  A  new  civil  Governor  is 
about  to  be  designated,  and  to  be  charged  with  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  law  and  order.  Your  able  and  energetic  aid,  with  that 
of  trn  troops  to  be  placed  under  your  command,  is  relied  upon  to  se- 
cure the  success  of  his  mission."  "If  the  Governor  of  the  Territory, 
finding  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial  proceedings  of  the  power  vested 
in  the  United  States  Marshals  and  other  proper  officers  inadequate  for 
the  preservation  of  the  public  peace  and  the  due  execution  of  the  laws, 
should  make  requisition  upon  you  for  a  military  force  to  aid  him  as  a 
posse  comitatus  in  the  performance  of  that  official  duty,  you  are 
hereby  directed  to  employ  for  that  purpose  the  whole  or  such  part  of 
your  command  as  may  be  required;  or  should  the  Governor,  the 
Judges,  or  Marshals  of  the  Territory  find  it  necessary  directly  to  sum- 
mon a  part  of  your  troops,  to  aid  either  in  the  performance  of  his  du- 


THE  COMING  OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY.  125 

the' citizens  could  not  be  convinced  that  the  army  meditated 
anything  but  evil.  Knowing  that  they  were  not  in  rebellion, 
and  that  there  was  no  need  of  troops  to  restore  or  maintain 
order,  they  took  the  view  most  natural  under  the  circum- 
stances. It  looked  to  them  like  a  movement  for  their  destruc- 
tion. 

Resistance  Determined  Upon. — They  resolved  that  such 
an  event  should  not  be.  Self-defense  was  a  duty  as  well  as  a 
right.  They  determined  to  oppose  the  troops,  and  prevent 
them  if  possible  from  entering  Salt  Lake  Valley.  But  while 
holding  back  the  arm  lifted  (as  they  believed)  to  strike,  they 
proposed  to  acquaint  the  Government  with  the  true  situation, 
hoping  that  a  peaceful  and  friendly  adjustment  of  differences 
would  follow.  If  this  hope  failed,  they  would  lay  waste  their 
farms  and  fields,  set  fire  to  their  towns  and  villages,  and  retire 
into  the  mountains  or  into  the  southern  wilderness. 

Governor  Young's  Position.— It  was  no  part  of  Governor 
Young's  purpose  to  resist  the  installation  of  his  successor. 
While  disgusted  with  the  conduct  of  some  of  the  officials  sent 
from  the  East  to  represent  the  Government  in  Utah — "broken 
down  political  hacks,"  he  called  them,  referring,  of  course,  to 
men  of  the  Judge  Brocchus  and  Judge  Drummond  stamp,  men 
of  corrupt  lives,  flaunting  and  even  boasting  of  their  immoral- 
ity; while  he  had  no  admiration  for  such  characters,  he  still  rec- 
ognized the  source  of  their  authority,  and  had  no  thought  of  re- 
belling against  the  Government.  He  did  not  oppose  the  com- 
ing of  the  newly-appointed  Federal  officers;  he  opposed  only 
the  troops  and  what  he  feared  would  result  from  their  entry 
into  the  Territory.  Not  having  received  from  the  Government 
any  notice  of  the  sending  of  the  army,  and  knowing  nothing 
of  the  instructions  given  to  its  commander,  he  could  only 
judge  of  what  it  intended  doing,  in  Utah,  by  the  bitter  mem- 
ory  of  things  done  in  Missouri  and  Illinois,  when  the  mobs 
and  militia  of  those  States  made  common  cause  and  undertook 
to  "restore  peace"  in  the  "Mormon"  cities  and  settlements — a 
"peace"  synonymous  with  "desolation."  Said  he,  "The  United 
States  is  sending  its  armies  here  to  hold  us  still  until  a  mob 
can  come  and  butcher  us,  as  has  been  done  before."  "Liars 
have  reported  that  this  people  have  committed  treason,  and 
upon  their  misrepresentations  the  President  has  ordered  out 
troops  to  assist  in  officering  this  Territory."  "We  have  trans- 
gressed no  law,  neither  do  we  intend  to  do  so :  but  as  for  any 

ties,  you  will  take  care  that  the  summons  be  promptly  obeyed.  And  in 
no  case  will  you,  your  officers  or  men,  attack  any  body  of  citizens, 
whatever,  except  on  such  requisition  or  summons,  or  in  sheer  self- 
defense." 


126    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

nation  coming  to  destroy  this  people,  God  Almighty  being  my 
helper,  it  shall  not  be."* 

The  Expedition  and  its  Commander. — The  Army  for 
Utah,  twenty-five  hundred  choice  troops,  splendidly  officered 
and  equipped,  set  out  for  the  West  in  the  summer  of  1857. 
Their  commander,  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  was  a  brilliant 
soldier,  who  had  been  spoken  of  as  the  probable  successor  to 
the  aged  General  Winfield  Scott,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
United  States  Army.  When  ordered  to  Utah,  Johnston  was  a 
colonel  of  cavalry  and  pay-master  in  the  military  service. 
Later,  he  was  made  a  brigadier  general.  The  command 

of    the    Expedition    had    first    been 
given  to  General  W.  S.  Harney,  then 
^f*^x  in  charge  at  Fort  Leavenworth;  but 

I  just  before  the  time  came  to  start  he 

i***>  Ife       •     was   OI"dered   to   remain   in   Kansas 
and  operate  for  peace   in   that   dis- 
|    tracted  State.   Johnston  received  his 
[    appointment  late  in  August,  and  im- 
mediately repaired  to  Fort  Leaven- 
worth. 

The  March  Begins.— The  van- 
guard of  the  troops,  comprising 
eight  companies  of  the  Tenth  Regi- 
ment and  the  entire  Fifth  Regiment 
of  Infantry,  under  Colonel  E.  B. 
Alexander,  moved  westward  on  the 
18th  of  July,  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  two  remaining  com- 
panies of  the  Tenth  Infantry,  under  Colonel  C.  F.  Smith,  fol- 
lowed. The  artillery — Phelps'  and  Reno's  batteries — went 
with  the  infantry.  The  cavalry,  six  companies  of  the  Second 
Dragoons  under  Colonel  Philip  St.  George  Cooke,  started  on 
the  16th  of  September.  This  was  the  same  Colonel  Cooke 
who  had  commanded  the  Mormon  Battalion  in  the  Mexican 
Wrar.  With  him  traveled  Governor  Alfred  Cumming  and 
other  recently-appointed  Federal  officers.  General  Johnston 
and  staff,  with  a  detachment  of  forty  dragoons,  in  light  spring 
wagons  left  the  frontier  post  one  day  behind  Colonel  Cooke. 
Several  large  supply  trains  and  herds  of  cattle  for  the  army 
had  been  upon  the  plains  since  June  or  July.  The  expedition 


GENERAL  JOHNSTON. 


*The  Governor's  apprehension  of  intended  violence  on  the  part 
of  the  Federal  troops  was  partly  based  upon  a  widespread  hostile 
sentiment,  to  the  effect  that  the  Utah  Expedition  ought  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  "Mormon"  country,  kill  or  imprison  the  men,  and 
confiscate  the  women.  Ribald  expressions  to  this  effect  were  upon  the 
lips  o:  many  of  the  soldiers  and  camp  followers  while  on  their  march 
to  the  Territory. 


THE  COMING  OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY.  127 

was   destined   to   cost   the   Government   between   fifteen   and 
twenty  million  dollars. 

Utah's  First  "Gentile"  Executive. — Governor  Gumming, 
who  was  about  to  succeed  Governor  Young,  was  a  native  of 
Georgia,  and  had  served  the  Nation  in  an  official  capacity 
among  the  Indians  on  the  Upper  Missouri.  He  was  appointed 
to  this  Territory  on  the  llth  of  July,  1857.  A  true  southern 
gentleman  of  the  old  type,  chivalrous,  brave,  fair-minded,  and 
withal  conservative,  his  selection  at  that  critical  period  to  pre- 
side over  our  troubled  commonwealth  proved  in  many  ways 
most  fortunate. 

Captain  Van  Vliet. — The  first  person  to  enter  Utah  from 
the  ranks  of  the  Expedition  was  Captain  Stewart  Van  Vliet, 
of  the  Commissary  Department.  He  was  guided  by  two  "Mor- 
mon" scouts,  having  left  his  own  escort  at  Ham's  Fork,  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-three  miles  distant.  The  date  of  the  Captain's 
arrival  at  Salt  Lake  City  was  the  8th  of  September.  His  ob- 
ject in  coming  was  to  ascertain  whether  forage  and  fuel  could 
be  purchased  for  the  troops  while  quartered  within  the  Ter- 
ritory. In  his  official  report  to  Captain  Pleasanton,  Assistant 
Adjutant  General,  Van  Vliet  said : 

"Immediately  upon  my  arrival  I  informed  Governor  Young  that 
1  desired  an  interview,  which  he  appointed  for  the  next  day.  On  the 
evening  of  the  day  of  my  arrival  Governor  Young,  with  many  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  city,  called  upon  me  at  my  quarters.  The  Governor 
received  me  most  cordially,  and  treated  me  during  my  stay,  which  con- 
tinued some  six  days,  with  the  greatest  hospitality  and  kindness.  In 
this  interview  he  made  known  to  me  his  views  with  regard  to  the  ap- 
proach of  the  United  States  troops,  in  plain  and  unmistakable  language. 
The  next  day,  as  agreed  upon,  I  called  upon  the  Governor 
and  delivered  in  person  the  letter  with  which  I  had  been  entrusted.  In 
that  interview,  and  in  several  subsequent  ones,  the  same  determina- 
tion to  resist  to  the  death  the  entrance  of  the  troops  into  the  valley  was 
expressed  by  Governor  Young  and  those  about  him.  The  Governor 
informed  me  that  there  was  abundance  of  everything  I  required  for 
the  troops,  such  as  lumber,  forage,  etc.,  but  that  none  would  be  sold 
to  us. 

"In  the  course  of  my  Conversations  with  the  Governor  and  the 
influential  men  of  the  Territory,  I  told  them  plainly  and  frankly  what 
I  conceived  would  be  the  result  of  their  present  course.  I  told  them 
that  they  might  prevent  the  small  military  force  now  approaching  Utah 
from  getting  through  the  narrow  defiles  and  rugged  passes  of  the 
mountains  this  year,  but  that  next  season  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment would  send  troops  sufficient  to  overcome  all  opposition.  The 
answer  to  this  was  invariably  the  same:  'We  are  aware  that  such  will 
be  the  case;  but  when  those  troops  arrive  thev  will  find  Utah  a  desert. 
Ever-"-  house  will  be  burned  to  the  pround,  every  tree  cut  down,  and 
every  field  laid  waste.  We  have  three  years'  provisions  on  hand, 
which  we  will  cache,  and  then  take  to  the  mountains  and  bid  defiance 
to  all  the  powers  of  the  Government.' 

"I  attended  their  services  on  Sunday,  and,  in  course  of  a  sermon 
delivered  by  Elder  Taylor,  he  referred  to  the  approach  of  the  troops 


128    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  declared  they  should  not  enter  the  Territory.  He  then  referred 
to  the  probability  of  an  overpowering  force  being  sent  against  them, 
and  desired  all  present  who  would  apply  the  torch  to  their  buildings, 
cut  down  their  trees,  and  lay  waste  their  fields,  to  hold  up  their  hands. 
Every  hand,  in  an  audience  numbering  over  four  thousand  persons, 
was  raised  at  the  same  moment.  During  my  stay  in  the  city  I  visited 
several  families,  and  all  with  whom  I  was  thrown  looked  upon  the 
present  movement  of  the  troops  toward  their  Territory  as  the  com- 
mencement of  another  religious  persecution,  and  expressed  a  fixed 
determination  to  sustain  Governor  Young  in  any  measures  he  might 
adopt.  From  all  these  facts  I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Governor  and  the  people  of  Utah  will  prevent,  if  possible,  the  Army 
for  Utah  from  entering  their  Territory  this  season.  This,  in  my 
opinion,  will  not  be  a  difficult  task,  owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  sea- 
son, the  smallness  of  our  force,  and  the  defenses  that  nature  has 
thrown  around  the  Valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake." 

Bloodshed  Deprecated. — Captain  Van  Vliet  became  con- 
vinced that  the  people  of  Utah  had  been  grossly  misrepre- 
sented, and  he  expressed  the  belief  that  the  Government  would 
send  an  investigating  committee  to  the  Territory.  Governor 
Young  replied:  "I  believe  God  sent  you  here,  and  that  good 
will  grow  out  of  it.  I  was  glad  when  I  heard  you  were  com- 
ing. If  we  can  keep  the  peace  this  winter,  I  feel  sure  that 
something  will  occur  to  prevent  the  shedding  of  blood." 

A  Deplorable  Deed. — The  irony  of  fate  was  never  more 
painfully  manifest  than  at  that  particular  period.  While  these 
hopeful  and  humane  sentiments  were  being  uttered  in  North- 
ern Utah,  there  was  perpetrated,  in  a  far  away  southern  corner 
of  the  Territory,  a  most  horrible  deed — the  Mountain  Meadows 
massacre,  at  once  the  most  tragic  and  most  deplorable  event 
in  the  history  of  the  commonwealth.  It  occurred  on  the  llth 
of  September,  while  Captain  Van  Vliet  was  still  at  Salt  Lake 
City;  but  the  news  did  not  reach  this  point  until  nearly  three 
weeks  later.  Even  then  the  awful  tale  was  not  fully  told.  It 
was  not  a  day  of  railroads  and  telegraphs,  and  the  scene  of  the 
crime  was  three  hundred  miles  from  the  Territorial^  capital,  in 
an  Indian  country,  beyond  the  outskirts  of  civilization. 


XIII. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE. 

1857. 

A  Crime  Against  Utah. — The  massacre  at  Mountain 
Meadows  was  not  only  a  crime  against  its  immediate  victims; 
it  was  a  crime  against  the  commonwealth,  whose  fair  fame  was 
thus  dragged  in  the  mire,  and  whose  people,  through  persistent 
misrepresentation,  have  been  made  to  suffer  unjustly  the 
odium  of  a  deed  which  all  classes  alike  execrate  and  deplore. 
Limited  space  precludes  here  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the 
subject,  but  the  main  facts  connected  with  the  terrible  tragedy 
are  as  follows. 

Emigrants  for  California. — About  the  time  the  news 
reached  Utah  that  an  army  was  marching  toward  the  Ter- 
ritory, for  the  avowed  purpose  of  suppressing  what  the  Federal 
Administration  styled  "a  state  of  substantial  rebellion  against 
the  laws  and  authority  of  the  United  States,"  there  arrived  at 
Salt  Lake  City  two  companies  of  emigrants,  one  from  Arkan- 
sas, and  the  other  from  Missouri,  both  on  their  way  to  South- 
ern California.  The  Arkansas  company  was  led  by  Captain 
Fancher,  and  the  Missouri  company  by  Captain  Dukes. 
Fancher's  train  seems  to  have  been  made  up  for  the  most  part 
of  respectable  and  well-to-do  people,  but  along  with  them  went 
a  rough  and  reckless  set  of  men  calling  themselves  "Missouri 
Wild  Cats."  The  latter  were  a  boisterous  lot,  and  their  con- 
duct was  probably  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  calamity  that 
came  upon  them  and  their  betters. 

The  "Missouri  Wild  Cats." — This  "rough  and  ready"  ele-^1 
ment  is  mentioned  by  Mr.  Stenhouse  ("Rocky  Mountain  » 
Saints,"  pp.  424-428)  as  forming  a  party  distinct  from  the 
Arkansas  company.  This  upon  information  imparted  to  him 
by  a  gentleman  friend,  whom  Mrs.  Stenhouse,  in  her  book 
("Tell  it  All,"  p.  325)  identifies  as  Eli  B.  Kelsey,  who  traveled 
with  the  emigrants  from  Fort  Bridger  to  Salt  Lake  City.  But 
Bancroft,  the  Western  historian,  discredits  this  statement 
(History  of  Utah,  p.  545,  Note  3),  and  gives  credence  to  an 
account  published  in  Hutchings'  California  Magazine  (IV. 
345)  to  the  effect  that  "there  were  a  few  Missourians  in  the 
Arkansas  party."* 

*Mrs.  Stenhouse,  in  her  reference  to  Kelsey,  says:  "If  I  remember 
rightly,  he  said  that  the  train  was  divided  into  two  parts,"  a  qualifica- 
tion indicating  that  the  Stenhouses  were  not  quite  sure  of  what  Kelsey 
had  told  them  on  this  point.  The  truth  appears  to  be,  as  Mr.  Bancroft 
states,  that  there  were  Missourians  in  the  Arkansas  party;  and  this 

•J 


130    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Southern  Route  Chosen. — The  emigrants  remained  several 
days,  encamped  near  the  Jordan  River,  undecided  as  to  whether 
they  should  take  the  northern  or  the  southern  route,  in  con- 
tinuing their  journey  westward.  Charles  C.  Rich,  one  of  the 
"Mormon"  leaders,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  country 

ahead  of  the  travelers,  advised 
them  to  pursue  the  northern 
route,  by  way  of  Bear  River 
and  the  Humboldt.  The  Ar- 
kansas company,  acting  upon 
this  advice,  went  as  far  as  Bear 
River,  and  then  returned,  hav- 
ing decided  after  all  to  follow 
the  southern  trail,  it  being 
nearer  to  their  destination. 
Both  companies  proceeded 
southward,  with  the  Arkansas 
emigrants  in  the  lead.  They 
traveled  by  way  of  Provo, 
Springville,  Payson,  Fillmore, 
and  the  smaller  settlements 
beyond. 

Rescued  by  "Mormons. "- 
The  Dukes  company  was  de- 
layed by  trouble  with  the  In- 
dians, one  of  whom  they  shot; 
two  of  their  number  being 
wounded  in  return.  This  occurred  near  Beaver,  a  new  settle- 
ment between  Fillmore  and  Parowan.*  Attacked  by  the  red 
men,  these  emigrants  were  compelled  to  corral  their  wagons 
and  seek  protection  in  a  rifle  pit.  Through  the  intervention  of 
Utah  militia  officers — "Mormons" — the  Indians  were  placated 
and  the  emigrants  allowed  to  proceed.  When  beyond  the  last 
of  the  line  of  settlements,  they  were  again  attacked  and  again 
saved,  the  mediators  being  "Mormon"  guides  and  interpreters, 
who  persuaded  the  Missourians  to  buy  off  the  savages  with 


c.  c.  RICH. 


view  is  borne  out  by  a  statement  from  some  of  the  settlers,  that  the 
emigrants  boasted  of  participating  in  the  expulsion  of  the  "Mormons" 
from  Missouri.  The  "Wild  Cats"  may  have  been  confounded  by  Mr. 
Kelsey  with  the  Dukes  company,  which  escaped  the  fate  that  befell 
the  Fancher  party. 

*  Beaver  was  founded  in  February  1856,  by  settlers  from  Parowan. 
The  first  three  to  arrive  on  Beaver  Creek  were  Wilson  G.  Nowers, 
Simeon  F.  Howd,  and  James  P.  Anderson.  Others  soon  followed, 
and  George  A.  Smith  organized  them  into  a  branch  of  the  Church, 
with  Simeon  F.  Howd  as  president,  and  Edward  W.  Thompson  as 
.clerk.  Cedar  City  and  Fillmore  also  contributed  pioneers  to  the  new 
settlement. 


THE -MOUNTAIN  MKADOWS  MASSACRE.        131 

their  loose  stock.     These  travelers  reached  the  Pacific  Coast 
in  safety.* 

The  Arkansas  Company. — Meanwhile  the  Arkansas  com- 
pany had  met  with  a  horrible  fate.  They  numbered  about 
thirty  families,  aggregating  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  per- 
sons, including  the  "Wild  Cat"  Missourians.  After  passing 
Fillmore  they  encamped,  about  the  20th  of  August,  at  Corn 
Creek  (Kanosh),  and  several  days  later  proceeded  by  way  of 
Beaver  and  Parowan  to  Cedar  City,  which  was  then  the  most 
southern  Utah  settlement  of  any  consequence.  There  the  trail 
branched  to  the  southwest,  crossing  the  desert  to  Southern 
California. 

Attitude  of  the  Settlers. — It  is  an  oft-repeated  assertion 
that  the  people  along  the  southern  route,  acting  under  orders 
from  Salt  Lake  City,  refused  to  sell  supplies  to  these  emi- 
grants, who  had  been  foredoomed  to  destruction.  This  in- 
famous falsehood — for  it  is  nothing  else — was  refuted  by  sworn 
testimony  taken  in  court  when  the  Mountain  Meadows  case 
was  thoroughly  sifted.  It  was  shown  that  the  people  were 
advised  by  their  leaders  to  save  their  grain,  as  it  was  a  time 
of  scarcity,  and  not  feed  it  to  their  animals,  nor  sell  it  to  trav- 
elers for  that  purpose;  but  they  were  to  furnish  all  passing 
companies  with  what  they  actually  needed  for  breadstuff.  Hon. 
Jesse  N.  Smi'th,  of  Parowan,  testified  that  he  sold  flour  and  salt 
to  the  Arkansas  emigrants,  and  having  flour  to  spare,  asked 
them  if  they  wanted  more.  They  wanted  vegetables,  but  he 
had  none  to  spare.  The  emigrants  obtained  supplies  at  Cedar, 
as  they  had  previously  obtained  them  at  Parowan. t 

*Hon.  Silas  S.  Smith,  in  his  testimony  at  the  first  Lee  trial,  men- 
tions both  the  Fancher  and  the  Dukes  companies,  and  the  part  played 
by  him  in  behalf  of  the  latter,  when  they  were  in  trouble  with  the 
Indians  near  Beaver.  Mr.  Smith  acted  as  intervenor  by  request  of 
Colonel  Dame,  at  Parowan. 

The  Dukes  company  is  also  referred  to,  though  not  by  name,  in  a 
little  book  entitled  "Jacob  Hamblin"  edited  by  James  A.  Little  and 
published  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  1881.  Hamblin  was  a  "Mormon" 
frontiersman,  explorer,  and  missionary  to  the  Indians.  He  had  a 
ranch  near  Mountain  Meadows,  but  was  in  Northern  Utah  when  the 
massacre  took  place.  Hamblin,  with  Samuel  Knight  and  Dudley 
Leavitt,  was  afterwards  instrumental  in  saving  the  Dukes  company 
when  it  was  attacked  the  second  time  by  Indians.  This  was  on 
Muddy  Creek,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  beyond  Cedar  City.  Later 
in  the  same  autumn  Hamblin,  directed  by  Governor  Young,  piloted  a 
company  of  "Gentile"  merchants  safe  through  to  California.  They 
had  been  doing  business  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  were  fleeing  from  the 
prospect  of  trouble  between  Utah  and  the  General  Government. 
.("Jacob  Hamblin,"  pp.  46-48.) 

tColonel  William  H.  Dame  was  commander  of  the  Parowan 
Military  District.  After  Governor  Young  proclaimed  martial  law, 
which  was  about  the  time  the  massacre  occurred,  Colonel  Dame  re- 


132   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

At  Mountain  Meadows. — From  Cedar  the  travelers  passed 
on  to  Mountain  Meadows,  thirty  or  forty  miles  from  that  town, 
and  several  miles  off  the  main  line  of  travel.  On  a  beautiful 
grassy  spot,  a  piece  of  elevated  pasture  land,  they  halted  for 
rest  and  to  recuperate  their  horses  and  cattle  preparatory  to 
the  journey  before  them.  While  they  were  thus  encamped 
the  tragedy  was  enacted  which  has  since  been  known  as  the 
Mountain  Meadows  Massacre. 

It  was  the  deed  of  Indians  and  white  men.  The  leader, 
John  Doyle  Lee,  was  a  farmer  among  the  red  men  and  had 
great  influence  over  them.  He  directed  the  Indian  attack,  and 
personally  took  part  in  that  cruel  butchery  of  men,  women, 
and  children. 

Attempts  to  Implicate  the  Innocent. — For  a  long  while 
attempts  to  fix  the  responsibility  for  this  awful  crime  proved 
unavailing.  Prosecuting  officers  and  judges  were  determined 
to  place  the  blame  where  it  did  not  belong.  As  soon  as  it 
became  known  that  white  men  were  engaged  in  the  massacre, 
efforts  were  made  to  implicate  persons  who  had  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  it.  When  sober  reason  asserted  itself,  and  a 
demand  for  simple  justice  superseded  an  insane  desire  to  judic- 
ially murder  the  innocent,  every  difficulty  in  the  way  of  a 
thorough  investigation  of  the  deed  and  the  punishment  of  its 
perpetrators  vanished. 

Bancroft  on  the  Massacre. — Bancroft's  History  of  Utah 
(p.  544)  comments  thus  upon  the  Mountain  Meadows  Mas- 
sacre: "It  may  as  well  be  understood  at  the  outset  that  this 
horrible  crime,  so  often  and  so  persistently  charged  upon  the 
Mormon  Church  and  its  leaders,  was  the  crime  of.  an  indi- 
vidual, the  crime  of  a  fanatic  of  the  worst  stamp,  one  who  was 
a  member  of  the  Mormon  Church,  but  of  whose  intentions 
the  Church  knew  nothing,  and  whose  bloody  acts,  the  members 
of  the  Church,  high  and  low,  regard  with  as  much  abhorrence 
as  any  out  of  the  Church.  Indeed,  the  blow  fell  upon  the 
brotherhood  with  threefold  force  and  damage.  There  was  the 
cruelty  of  it,  which  wrung  their  hearts;  and  there  was  the 
strength  it  lent  their  enemies  further  to  malign  and  molest 
them.  The  Mormons  denounce  the  Mountain  Meadows 
Massacre,  and  every  act  connected  therewith,  as  earnestly  and 
honestly  as  any  in  the  outside  world.  This  is  abundantly 
proved  and  may  be  accepted  as  a  historical  fact." 

ceived  from  him  a  copy  of  the  proclamation  with  a  circular  (sent  to 
prominent  men  all  over  the  Territory)  in  which  were  these  words: 
"And  what  we  said  in  regard  to  saving  the  grain  and  provisions,  we 
say  again,  let  there  be  no  waste."  At  its  close  the  circular  said: 
"Save  life  always  when  it  is  possible..  We  do  not  wish  to  shed  a 
drop  of  blood  if  it  can  be  avoided." 


THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.        133 

Mr.  Bancroft  is  right.  For  that  ghastly  and  gruesome/ 
deed,  which  every  citizen  of  Utah  regards  as  a  public  calamity, 
a  stain  upon  the  fair  name  of  the  State,  no  church,  no  com- 
munity, is  responsible.  Letting  alone  the  question  of  principle,, 
in  force  at  all  times,  it  is  incontrovertible  that  nothing  could 
have  been  farther  from  the  policy  of  the  "Mormon"  people  at 
that  period  than  the  massacre  at  Mountain  Meadows.*  f 

The  Conduct  of  the  Emigrants. — It  has  always  been"/ 
alleged  that  these  emigrants,  or  a  portion  of  them,  acted  in  a 
reprehensible  manner  while  passing  through  the  Utah  settle- 
ments; that  some  of  them  went  so  far  as  to  poison  springs  of 
water,  also  the  dead  body  of  an  ox,  and  that  several  Indians 
died  from  drinking  at  those  springs  and  eating  of  the  infected 
carcass.  They  have  also  been  charged  with  insolent  and  law- 
less conduct  toward  the  white  settlers,  violating  their  munic- 
ipal regulations,  destroying  property,  insulting  women,  and 
defying  the  officers  of  the  law  who  protested  against  their  bad 
behavior.  It  has  been  represented  that  they  gloated  over  the 
former  mobbings  and  drivings  of  the  people,  the  murder  of 
their  Prophet  and  other  leading  men,  declaring  that  they  had 
taken  part  in  those  atrocities,  and  rejoicing  at  the  prospect  of 
the  extermination  of  the  entire  community  by  the  army  then 
coming  from  the  East.  Moreover,  that  they  even  threatened 
to  return,  after  taking  their  women  and  children  to  a  place  of 
safety,  and  assist  the  troops  in  the  work  of  rapine  and  de-/ 
struction. 

The  slain  emigrants  cannot,  of  course,  speak  for  them- 
selves, either  in  denial  or  admission  of  the  truth  of  these 
charges.  But  there  have  always  been  proxies  who  were  more 
than  willing  to  assert  that  the  travelers  conducted  themselves 
with  strict  propriety,  neither  committing  the  deeds  nor  utter- 
ing the  threats  attributed  to  them.  Anti-"Mormon"  writers 

*The  seeming  connection  between  the  crime  and  a  remark  made| 
by  Governor  Young  to  Captain  Van  Vliet,  is  treated  thus  by  Mr. 
Bancroft.  After  quoting  the  "Mormon"  leader  as  saying  (September 
9,  1857) :  "If  the  Government  dare  to  force  the  issue,  I  shall  not  hold 
the  Indians  by  the  wrist  any  longer."  "If  the  issue  comes,  you  may 
tell  the  Government  to  stop  all  emigration  across  the  continent,  for 
the  Indians  will  kill  all  who  attempt  it,"  the  historian  adds:  "The 
threat  and  the  deed  came  so  near  together  as  to  lead  many  to  believe 
that  one  was  the  result  of  the  other.  But  a  moment's  reflection  will 
show  that  they  were  too  nearly  simultaneous  for  this  to  be  the  case; 
that  in  the  absence  of  telegraph  and  railroad  it  would  be  impossible 
to  execute  such  a  deed  three  hundred  miles  away  in  two  days." 

According  to  Wilford  Woodruff's  journal,  however,  the  conversa- 
tion between   Governor  Young  and   Captain  Van  Vliet  in  which  that 
particular    remark    occurs,   took   place    two    days    after   the    massacre, 
instead  of  two  days  before. — Roberts'  History  of  the  Mormon  Church,  / 
"Americana"  for  June,  1913.  — / 


134   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

upon  the  theme  have  almost  invariably  taken  this  ground,  in 
their  eagerness  to  depict  the  crime  in  its  most  hideous  aspects. 
As  if  it  were  not  sufficiently  atrocious  to  suit  their  purpose, 
they  have  painted  it  blacker  still,  hoping  thereby  to  injure, 
not  the  guilty  perpetrators,  but  those  whom  they  hate  far  more 
— the  leaders,  dead  and  living,  of  the  "Mormon"  Church.* 

On  the  other  hand,  those  guilty  of  such  a  deed,  when  they 
fully  realized  its  awful  consequences,  would  be  exceedingly 
liable  to  exaggerate  the  offenses  of  the  emigrants,  in  order  to 
palliate  "the  deep  damnation  of  their  taking  off."  Possibly 
too  much  has  been  affirmed,  and  too  much  denied,  upon  this 
particular  point. 

The  fact  remains,  however,  and  it  is  a  well  attested  fact, 
that  some  of  those  emigrants  conducted  themselves  in  a  man- 
ner the  reverse  of  commendable.  Impartial  history  will  par- 
allel the  assertion  that  the  emigrants  conducted  themselves 
properly,  with  the  statement  quoted  by  Mr.  Stenhouse  (a  non- 
"Mormon"  when  -he  wrote)  that  the  camp  of  the  "Wild  Cat" 

*The  latest  attempt  of  this  kind  is  by  R.  N.  Baskin  of  Salt  Lake 
City.  As  late  as  the  year  1914 — practically  the  present  hour — when 
the  ancient  bitterness  between  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles"  has  so  far 
abated  that  they  can  affiliate  socially,  politically,  and  in  business,  as 
never  before,  this  Bourbon  of  the  dead  past,  who  "learns  nothing"  and 
"forgets  nothing,"  drags  from  the  grave  and  holds  up  to  public  view 
the  skeletons  of  the  old  blood-curdling  sensations  which  all  good 
citizens  desire  to  have  buried  in  oblivion.  In  the  face  of  all  the  evi- 
dence to  the  contrary,  he  tries  to  make  it  appear  that  the  "Mormon" 
Church  and  its  leading  men  were  responsible  for  the  Mountain 
Meadows  Massacre.  That  crime  was  committed  in  1857;  Mr.  Baskin, 
according  to  his  own  account,  came  to  Utah  in  1865.  All  he  knows 
about  the  massacre  he  learned  from  others  after  his  arrival  here;  and 
the  same  is  true  of  more  of  his  so-called  "Reminiscences."  They  are 
largely  a  rehash  of  stale  anti-"Mormon"  stories,  based  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  apostates,  jail-birds,  and  self-confessed  murderers.  He  com- 
plains of  inaccuracies  in  other  writings,  while  his  own  book  fairly 
bristles  with  them.  It  abounds  in  coarse  abuse  and  venomous  vituper- 
ation. Under  pretense  of  correcting  alleged  misstatements  of  history, 
he  vents  his  personal  spleen  and  pours  the  vitriol  of  his  implacable 
hatred  upon  "Mormons"  and  "Mormonism"  in  general.  A  special 
feature  is  the  revival  of  the  musty  Munchausenism  respecting  "Dan- 
ites"  or  blood-avengers  who,  according  to  Baskin,  once  made  a  busi- 
ness of  killing  apostates  and  enemies  of  the  "Mormon"  Church.  It 
does  not  seem  to  have  dawned  upon  his  comprehension,  that  if  the 
extravagant  tales  he  repeats  and  his  frenetic  "opinions"  founded 
thereon  were  even  half  way  true,  he  would  never  have  lived  to  write 
any  reminiscences.  Had  there  been  any  "Danites"  they  would  have 
disposed  of  him  long  ago.  The  mere  fact  that  this  inveterate  "Mor- 
mon'Miater  is  alive  and  well  ought  to  be  accepted  as  conclusive  proof 
of  the  non-existence  of  such  an  organization,  past  or  present.  He 
has  lived  here  fifty  years,  not  only  unmolested,  but  treated  with^kind- 
ness  and  consideration,  which  he  now  repays  by  endeavoring  to  injure 
the  people  who  made  it  possible  for  him  to  append  to  his  signature 
as  a  private  citizen,  "Ex-Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Bench  of  Utah." 


THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.        135 

Missourians  "resounded  with  vulgar  songs,  boisterous  roaring, 
and  'tall  swearing.' '  Their  misconduct  was  so  pronounced 
that  the  decent  and  respectable  emigrants  were  advised  not 
to  travel  with 'them,  lest,  through  their  ill  behavior,  trouble 
might  come  upon  all. — "Rocky  Mountain  Saints,"  pp.  427, 
428.* 

Notwithstanding  this  improper  behavior,  the  emigrants 
were  well  treated  by  most  of  the  settlers ;  but  for  some  reason 
feeling  ran  high  against  them  in  the  remote  and  isolated  dis- 
trict where  they  were  sacrificed  to  savage  greed  and  resent- 
ment, reinforced  and  directed  by  fanatical  fury. 

How  the  Deed  was  Done. — The  attack  at  Mountain  Mead- 
ows began  at  dawn  of  September  7th,  when  an  overwhelming 
force  of  Indians  poured  deadly  volleys  upon  the  emigrants, 
from  the  hills  and  ravines  surrounding  the  place  of  their  ei. 
campment.  In  the  opening  onslaught  seven  men  were  killed 
and  sixteen  wounded.  The  survivors  made  a  brave  defense, 
and  held  the  enemy  at  bay.  At  this  time  the  only  white  man 
known  to  have  been  with  the  Indians  was  John  D.  Lee.  Sub- 
sequently others  came  upon  the  scene,  lured  to  the  Meadows, 
as  they  claimed,  by  the  representation  that  their  services  were 
needed  to  bury  the  dead.  Some  of  them  participated  in  the 
butchery  that  followed.  The  siege  was  maintained  until  the 
morning  of  Friday  the  llth,  when  Lee  induced  the  emigrants 
to  surrender,  promising  to  convey  them  to  a  place  of  safety. 
Trusting  in  his  word,  they  gave  up  their  arms,  and  were  mas- 
sacred after  marching  out  of  their  entrenchments.  Seventeen 
children,  ranging  in  age  from  two  or  three  months  to  seven 
years,  were  spared  and  eventually  returned  to  their  friends  in 
Arkansas,  Congress  having  made  an  appropriation  for  that 
purpose.  The  property  of  the  dead  emigrants  was  disposed 
of  by  those  who  slew  them. 

Baseless  Theories — The  Pratt  Murder — The  Reformation 
—To  render  plausible  the  theory  that  the  "Mormon"  Church  / 
was  the  real  culprit  in  the  case,  it  has  been  cited  that  this 
company  of  emigrants  came  from  a  State  where,  only  a  few 
months  before,  one  of  the  Church  leaders  had  been  murdered. 
It  is  true  that  Parley  P.  Pratt,  accused  of  abducting  the  chil- 
dren of  Hector  H.  McLean,  had  stood  trial,  May  13,  1857,  be- 
fore a  United  States  court  at  Van  Buren,  Arkansas.  Acquitted 

*Readers  of  the  Baskin  "Reminiscences"  will  look  in  vain  therein 
for  any  allusion  to  these  incidents.  While  their  author  quotes  Copiously 
from  the  Stenhouse  books,  he  is  discreetly  silent  upon  the  subject  of 
the  "Missouri  Wild  Cats"  and  their  unseemly  behavior.  The  reason 
is  apparent.  The  mention  of  such  things  would  have  marred  the 
picture  he  was  painting,  in  which  he  desired  to  exhibit  the  emigrants 
in  the  best  light,  and  the  "Mormons"  in  the  worst  light,  possible. 


136   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


of  the  charge  brought  against 'him,  he  was  liberated  and  al- 
lowed to  proceed  on  his  way.  Mounting  his  horse,  he  was  rid- 
ing northward  through  a  sparsely  settled  region  toward  the 
point  where  he  purposed  joining  an  emigrant  train  bound  for 
Utah,  when  he  was  overtaken  by  McLean,  who  plunged  a 
bowie  knife  into  his  victim's  side,  and  after  the  unarmed  man 
had  fallen  from  his  horse,  shot  him  with  a  pistol  snatched  from 
the  hand  of  an  accomplice.  The  murderer  was  never  brought 
to  justice.  He  claimed  that  the  man  he  slew  had  alienated  the 
affections  of  his  wife;  but  Mrs.  McLean  alleged  drunkenness 
and  cruelty  as  the  causes  of  separation.  She  was  endeavoring 

to  regain  possession  of  her 
children,  torn  from  her  in 
San  Francisco  and  taken  to 
New  Orleans,  and  Mr.  Pratt 
was  assisting  her,  when  he 
was  arrested  and  put  on  trial. 
The  theory  of  Church 
responsibility  based  upon 
this  incident  is  met  by  the 
fact  that  the  most  serious 
troubles  of  the  "Mormon" 
people  had  taken  place  not 
in  Arkansas,  but  in  Missouri 
and  Illinois.  In  Missouri  had 
occurred  the  Haun's  Mill 
Massacre,  in  which  a  score 
of  "Mormon"  settlers  were 
ruthlessly  butchered,  prior 
to  a  general  devastation  of 
"Mormon"  homes  and  the 
mid-winter  expulsion  of  the 

p    p   PR  \TT  entire   community   from   the 

State ;      and      yet      Captain 

Dukes  and  his  Missouri  company  were  rescued  from  Indians 
and  assisted  toward  their  destination  by  "Mormons."  Joseph 
and  Hyrum  Smith  had  been  murdered  in  Illinois,  and  yet  Judge 
Drummond  and  others  from  that  State  were  spared  by  the 
dreadful  "Danites"  or  "Avenging  Angels,"  whose  secret  ex- 
istence was  asserted.  Moreover,  Parley  P.  Pratt  had  been 
acquitted  in  Arkansas,  before  his  murder — probably  in  Indian 
Territorv — by  an  assassin  from  ,Louisiana.  There  was  no 
apparent  reason,  therefore,  why  emigrants  from  Arkansas 
should  be  hated  by  the  "Mormon"  people.  On  the  contrary, 
there  was  good  cause  why  that  State  should  be  gratefully  re- 
membered by  them.  At  the  time  of  the  exodus  from  Illinois, 
when  an  appeal  was  made  by  the  homeless  community  to  the 


THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.        137 

Governors  of  all  the  States,  asking  for  protection,  and  an 
asylum  within  their  borders,  the  Governor  of  Arkansas,  and  he 
alone,  answered  the  petition,  responding  to  it  with  a  generous 
and  sympathetic  epistle.  — / 

Some  have  held  that  the  affair  at  Mountain  Meadows  was 
the  indirect  result  of  a  wave  of  fanatical  sentiment  created  by 
a  movement  in  Utah  known  as  "The  Reformation,"  which  be- 
gan in  the  latter  part  of  1856,  a  year  before  the  massacre  took 
place.  A  call  to  repentance  was  made  by  the  ''Mormon" 
Church  upon  all  wrong-doers  within  its  pale;  much  strong 
language  was  used  by  the  leaders  in  their  denunciation  of 
iniquity;  and  during  the  next  six  months  "the  inside  of  the 
platter"  was  pretty  thoroughly  cleansed  by  the  reclamation  or 
excommunication  of  the  offending  members.  That  there  was 
much  enthusiasm,  and  some  fanaticism,  as  the  fruit  of  this 
crusade  against  vice,  is  not  denied  by  those  who  know  best 
concerning  its  character  and  spirit ;  but  they  utterly  repudiate 
the  idea  of  any  connection  between  the  reformation  and  a  deed 
of  blood  compared  with  which  the  sins  the  people  had  been 
warned  to  forsake  were  as  molehills  to  a  mountain.  A  call  to 
repentance  could  hardly  have  been  construed,  even  by  the  most 
fanatical,  as  a  command  or  an  encouragement  to  commit 
crime.* 

The  Probable  Causes. — There  need  be  no  vain  theorizing 
over  this  matter — no  straining  after  imaginary  reasons.  The""| 
most  consistent  hypothesis  that  can  be  advanced  to  account 
for  the  atrocity  at  Mountain  Meadows,  is  the  excitement  and 
agitation  over  the  coming  of  Johnston's  Army,  and  the  fear  of 
what  that  army  intended  doing  in  Utah.f  Everything  goes  to 
show  that  these  feelings  of  alarm,  intensified  by  words  and  acts 
of  special  provocation,  were  largely  if  not  mainly  responsible 
for  the  terrible  fate  that  befell  the  emigrants.  The  unwise 
threats  made  by  some  of  them — for  that  such  threats  were 
made  has  always  been  affirmed  by  those  cognizant  of  the  facts 
—would  be  extremely  potent  in  producing  the  fatal  result. 
Exonerating  from  reproach  all  reputable  members  of  the  ill- 
starred  company,  the  fact  remains  that  a  portion  of  them,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  "Mormons"  and  non-" Mormons" 
alike,  were  far  from  being1  the  white-souled  saints  that  certain 


*One  of  the  most  active  promoters  of  the  Reformation  was  Pres- 
ident Jedediah  M.  Grant.  He  virtually  gave  his  life  to  that  cause. 
His  strenuous  exertions  in  warning,  exhorting,  baptizing,  and  re- 
claiming the  erring,  exhausted  his  vitality  and  resulted  in  his  death, 
December  1,  1856. 

t"The  terrible  wrongs  and  persecutions  of  Missouri  and  Illinois 
came  up  vividly  in  the  minds  of  those  who  had  suffered  in  them  and 
greatly  intensified  the  public  feeling." — Jacob  Hamblin,  p.  52. 


138    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

writers  would  have  the  public  believe.  Those  wild  Missourians 
were  quite  capable  of  making  the  bloodthirsty  threats  attrib- 
uted to  them,  and  of  carrying  out  those  threats,  as  "Mormon" 
history  amply  shows.  And  the  spirit  they  manifested — they 
being  the  aggressive,  dominant  element  in  the  company- 
would  naturally  be  regarded  by  the  settlers,  however  mis- 
takenly, as  the  spirit  of  the  entire  camp.  It  is  quite  conceiv- 
able, too,  that  some  of  the  Arkansas  emigrants  were  of  the 
same  mood,  and  that  they  joined  with  the  Missourians  in  their 
tantalizing  talk  and  offensive  conduct. 

No  Justification. — All  this  does  not  justify  the  massacre. 
Nothing  can  justify  that  inhuman  and  indefensible  deed.  But 
the  facts  here  presented  help  to  explain  why  the  massacre  took 
place,  and  no  honest  historian  or  fair-minded  student  of  history 
can  consistently  ignore  this  phase  of  the  question. 

Local,  Not  General. — Resentment  and  fear  were  probably 
the  main  causes  of  the  tragedy.  Savage  ferocity,  springing 
from  greed  or  revenge,  also  figured  in  the  catastrophe.  But 
the  causes  were  local,  not  general.  The  feelings  of  exaspera- 
tion that  conspired  with  other  conditions  to  bring  about  the 
dreadful  fatality,  were  confined  to  one  county  of  the  Territory, 
to  one  or  two  small  towns  within  that  county,  and  to  a  few 
of  the  white  inhabitants  of  those  towns.  As  cruel  and  as  crim- 
inal as  the  massacre  itself,  is  the  attempt  to  place  upon  a  whole 
people,  upon  an  entire  community,  the  burden  of  a  crime  com- 
mitted by  a  few  of  its  members — a  crime  which  nobody  de- 
fends, but  which  all  classes  unite  in  denouncing  and  execrating 
as  a  most  dastardly  and  most  damnable  deed. 

Time  and  Place. — Such  atrocities  as  those  at  Haun's  Mill 
and  at  Mountain  Meadows  can  only  occur  at  certain  periods 
and  in  certain  places — usually  in  warlike  times  and  in  parts 
remote  from  the  busy  centers  of  population.  Events  and 
utterances  of  little  consequence  in  cities,  are,  in  villages,  mag- 
nified beyond  their  due  proportions,  and  feelings  often  spring 
up  in  such  localities  that  are  not  found  in  more  thickly  peopled 
haunts,  where  communication  is  freer,  business  more  engross- 
ing, and  public  sentiment  more%  tolerant.  Great  as  was  the 
agitation  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  the  autumn  of  1857,  it  was  tem- 
pered and  controlled  by  the  presence  and  wise  counsels  of  far- 
sighted  leaders.  Had  these  same  men  been  upon  the  scene  of 
the  massacre,  a  desire  to  retaliate  for  acts  and  utterances  such 
as  those  charged  against  the  emigrants  would  have  been  held 
in  check.  The  demands  of  prudence  would  have  been  recog- 
nized, whatever  the  provocation.  The  general  welfare  would 
have  been  considered,  and  a  different  method  chosen  to  con- 
serve it,  than 'the  one  adopted  by  that  handful  of  misguided 


THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.        139 


fanatics  who  were  one  with  the  infuriate  Indian  horde  in  com- 
mitting the  horrible  deed. 

Division  of  Sentiment — Advice  Sought. — Yet  even  in  that 
remote  region,  the  cool  heads  outnumbered  the  hot  ones,  wise 
counsels  in  part  prevailed,  and  forbearance  and  self-control 
were  manifested  by  the  humane  and  hospitable  majority  of  the 
people.  The  question  of  dealing  with  these  emigrants,  on 
account  of  the  lawless  acts  and  ferocious  threats,  mentioned, 
was  debated  both  at  Parowan  and  Cedar,  after  the  company 
had  passed  through  those  places;  and  it  was  urged  by  some 
that  inasmuch  as  the  strangers  had  declared  themselves  en- 
emies they  should  be  treated  as  such,  and  at  least  held  as 
prisoners  of  war.  Others  were  equally  urgent  that  the  trav- 
elers should  not  be  molested. 

What  would  be  the  outcome?  Certain  hot-headed  zealots, 
some  of  them  prominent  and  influential  in  that  part,  favored 
the  most  drastic  measures,  and  the  Indians  were  gathering  in 
force  between  Cedar  and  the 
Meadows,  their  purpose  be- 
ing to  attack  and  plunder  the 
emigrant  camp.  The  situa- 
tion was  critical.  In  view  of 
the  circumstances  it  was 
finally  decided  to  submit  the 
question,  with  full  informa- 
tion, to  the  authorities  at 
Salt  Lake  City;  to  send  a 
courier  to  the  Governor  of 
the  Territory,  asking  his  ad- 
vice as  to  what  should  be 
done.*  Meanwhile  the  In- 
dians were  to  be  pacified  and 
prevented  if  possible  from 
executing  their  fell  design. 
Colonel  Isaac  C.  Haight,  in 
command  of  the  militia  at 
Cedar,  wrote  an  order  to  that 
effect  and  sent  it  to  John  D. 
Lee,  "Major  of  the  Post." 
Haight  also  wrote  a  dispatch  j.  H.  HASLAM. 

to  Governor  Young,  which  was  carried  by  James  H.  Haslam, 
a  mounted  messenger,  to  the  far  away  capital.  Haslam  could 
scarcely  have  started  upon  his  errand  when  word  came  to 
Haight  that  the  camp  at  Mountain  Meadows  had  been  attacked, 


*Testimony  of  Laban  Merrill  at  the  second  and  final  trial  of  John 
D.  Lee. 


140   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

that  some  of  the  emigrants  had  been  killed,  and  that  the  sur- 
vivors were  in  a  state  of  siege. 

Governor  Young  Tries  to  Save  the  Emigrants. — Haslam 
left  Cedar  late  in  the  afternoon  of  Monday  the  7th.  Riding  fast 
and  changing  horses  frequently,  he  succeeded  in  reaching  Salt 
Lake  City  on  the  morning  of  Thursday  the  10th.  He  at  once 
delivered  the  dispatch  to  Governor  Young,  who,  seeing  at  a 
glance  the  perilous  situation,  with  all  the  issues  involved,  and 
the  need  of  urgent  haste  to  ward  off  the  threatened  catastrophe, 
immediately  answered  Haight's  message,  and  handed  the  letter 
to  the  courier  with  these  words :  "Go  with  all  speed,  spare  no 
horse  flesh.  The  emigrants  must  not  be  meddled  with,  if  it 
takes  aH  Iron  County  to  prevent  it.  They  must  go  free  and  un- 
molested."* 

Haslam  reached  Cedar  City  on  Sunday  the  13th,  and  gave 
the  Governor's  letter  to  Colonel  Haight.  That  letter  contained 
these  words — the  only  reference  to  emigrants  in  the  communi- 
cation :  "In  regard  to  the  emigration  trains  passing  through 
our  settlements,  we  must  not  interfere  with  them  until  they 
are  first  notified  to  keep  away.  You  must  not  meddle  with 
them.  There  are  no  other  trains  that  I  know  of.  If  those 
who  are  there  will  leave,  let  them  go  in  peace."  Haight,  as  he 
read  the  letter,  exclaimed,  "Too  late,  too  late,"  and  burst  into 
tears.  The  massacre  had  already  taken  place. f 

Why  the  Effort  Failed. — What  precipitated  the  tragedy, 
pending  the  arrival  of  the  dispatch  that  would  have  prevented 
it,  is  not  certainly  known.  The  accounts  are  very  conflicting. 
PLee,  in  an  alleged  "confession,"  published  after  his  death,  lays 
the  blame  upon  Haight,  whom  he  accuses  not  only  of  inciting 
him  to  stir  up  the  Indians  against  the  emigrants,  but  of  subse- 
quently issuing  an  order  for  the  massacre.  But  such  testimony 
is,  of  course,  not  unimpeachable.  Lee  also  declares  that 
Haight  accused  Colonel  Dame  of  issuing  the  fatal  order.  But 
why  was  such  an  order  issued — if  indeed  it  was  issued?  Why 
was  the  deed  done?  The  probable  reason  is  this:  The  emi- 
grants had  learned  that  white  men  were  in  league  with  the 

*Haslam's  testimony  at  the  Lee  trial.  See  also  his  supplemental 
testimony,  dated  December  4,  1884,  attested  January  12,  1885,  and  sub- 
sequently published  in  pamphlet  form. 

tGovernor  Young's  letter  to  Colonel  Haight,  dated  "President's 
Office,  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  Sept.  10,  1857,"  is  published  entire  in 
C.  W.  Penrose's  address  on  "The  Mountain  Meadows  Massacre,"  de- 
livered at  Salt  Lake  City,  October  26,  1884,  and  afterwards  issued  as  a 
pamphlet,  with  James  Holt  Haslam's  additional  testimony  as  a  supple- 
ment. The  Governor's  letter  may  also  be  found  in  Roberts' 'History 
of  the  "Mormon"  Church  ("Americana"  for  June  1913). 


THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.        141 

savages  against  them,  and  it  was  therefore  determined  to 
"wipe  out"  the  company,  sparing. none  who  could  tell  the  tale. 

Lee's  False  Report. — Two  weeks  and  four  days  later  John 
D.  Lee  brought  to  Governor  Young  a  verbal  report  of  the 
affair.  The  Governor  was  horrified,  and  wept  at  the  recital. 
Lee  laid  the  blame  entirely  upon  the  Indians,  declaring  that 
no  white  man  took  part  in  the  killing.  So  said  Brigham 
Young;  and  such  also  is  the  substance  of  depositions  signed 
and  sworn  to  by  Wilford  Woodruff  and  John  W.  Young,  both 
of  whom  were  present  on  the  occasion.* 

The  Truth  Comes  to  Light. — Among  all  but  the  actual  par- 
ticipants, there  was  complete  acceptance  of  the  story  that  the 
crime  was  committed  solely  by  Indians.  The  white  men  en- 
gaged in  it,  before  leaving  the  fatal  field  had  pledged  them- 
selves under  the  most  binding  oaths  to  maintain  absolute 
secrecy  as  to  the  facts.  For  years  the  unholy  promise  was 
kept ;  but  little  by  little  the  truth  leaked  out.  John  D.  Lee  was 
then  expelled  from  the  Church,  and  Isaac  C.  Haight,  his  supe- 
rior officer,  for  failing  to  restrain  him  and  to  take  prompt 
action  against  him,  was  also  excommunicated.  Subsequently 
Lee  was  brought  to  justice,  and  paid  the  penalty  of  his  crime. 
Others  implicated  in  the  massacre  were  fugitives  for  many 
years,  and  finally  died  in  exile.  An  account  of  the  trial,  con- 
viction, and  execution  of  John  D.  Lee  is  reserved  for  a  future 
chapter. 


*Cooies  of  these  depositions,  and  one  of  similar  import  from 
Aaron  F.  Farr,  Sr.,  may  be  found  in  the  Penrose  pamphlet  on  the 
Massacre,  pp.  51-59. 


XIV. 
THE  ECHO  CANYON  WAR. 

1857-1858. 

Johnston's  Army. — The  Army  for  Utah  was  now  ap- 
proaching the  eastern  border  of  the  Territory.  Its  progress, 
since  leaving  Fort'Leavenworth,  had  been  in  the  main  satis- 
factory. True,  the  Cheyenne  Indians  had  raided  the  cattle 
herds,  running  off  eight  hundred  beeves,  and  killing  one  of  the 

nineteen  drovers ;  but  the  army 
itself  had  suffered  no  misfor- 
tune. The  weather  had  been 
pleasant,  and  everything  seem- 
ed propitious  for  the  expedi- 
tion. 

After  passing  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  however,  there  was 
a  radical  change.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  troops  was  then  one 
continuous  disaster.  Frost  and 
fire  combined  against  them. 
Johnston's  campaign  in  Utah, 
except  that  no  fighting  took 
place,  repeated  on  a  small  scale 
Napoleon's  campaign  in  Russia. 
The  Utah  Militia.  —  The 
commander  of  the  Expedition 
had  been  warned  by  his 
superiors  to  "anticipate  resist- 
ance, general,  organized,  and 
formidable."  The  anticipation 
was  fully  realized.  Since  1852 

Utah  had  been  divided  into  military  districts,  most  of  them 
corresponding  to  the  several  counties  of  the  Territory,  and 
laws  had  been  enacted  for  the  further  organization  of  the 
militia,  still  known  by  its  reminiscent  title,  "The  Nauvoo 
Legion."  Tn  the  spring  of  1857  the  Territory  had  been  redis- 
tricted,  and  eight  days  after  Governor  Young  learned  of  the 
coming  of  the  army.  General  Wells  issued  instructions  to  the 
district  commanders,  requiring  them  to  hold  their  forces  in 
readiness  to  march  at  short  notice,  and  to  make  all  needful 
preparations  for  a  winter  campaign.  The  Legion  then  num- 
bered a  little  over  six  thousand  men,  about  one-third  of  whom 
took  the  field.  From  early  in  August  warlike  preparations 
went  forward,  until  the  militia  were  ready  to  meet  those  whom 
they  regarded  as  foes  and  invaders. 


GENERAL  WELLS. 


THE  ECHO  CANYON  WAR.  143 

Martial  Law  Proclaimed. — Just  before  the  first  of  the 
Federal  troops  crossed  the  Utah  line,  Governor  Young  pro- 
claimed martial  law,  forbidding  all  armed  forces  to  enter  the 
Territory  and  directing  the  militia  to  repel  any  attempt  at  in- 
vasion. The  date  of  this  proclamation  was  September  15,  1857. 
A  copy  of  the  document  was  forwarded  to  Colonel  Alexander, 
who  commanded  the  vanguard  of  the  approaching  army.  Citi- 
zens of  Utah  traveling  or  sojourning  in  other  lands  were  in- 
vited to  return  and  rally  for  the  common  defense.  Settlements 
formed  by  "Mormon"  colonists  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Ter- 
ritory were  now  broken  up,  the  inhabitants  moving  back  to 
their  former  homes. 

Camp  Winfield. — Ignoring  the  Governor's  proclamation, 
Colonel  Alexander  pushed  on  to  Ham's  Fork  of  Green  River, 
and  there  established  Camp  Winfield,  twenty  miles  northeast 
of  Fort  Bridger.  He  reached  his  camp  ground  on  the  28th  of 
September,  having  made  forced  marches  for  several  days  in 
order  to  overtake  and  protect  the  supply  trains  that  preceded 
the  army  across  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

General  Wells — Echo  Canyon. — About  this  time  General 
Wells  with  his  staff  left  Salt  Lake  City  for  Echo  Canyon,  where 
he  established  headquarters.  His  entire  force  then  numbered 
about  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  men,  made  up  of  companies 
from  the  various  military  districts.  Twice  that  number,  how- 
ever, saw  active  service  before  the  campaign  ended.* 

Echo  Canyon,  the  main  route  through  the  mountains,  com- 
manded all  the  passes  and  defiles  leading  directly  to  Salt  Lake 
Valley.  General  Wells  encamped -at  a  place  called  "The  Nar- 
rows," about  four  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  canyon.  There, 
where  the  rugged  road  winds  between  over-hanging  cliffs  hun- 
dreds of  feet  in  height,  a  small  force,  it  was  thought,  might 
hold  in  check  a  large  army. 

*At  the  headquarters  of  the  Utah  militia,  on  the  21st  of  Novem- 
ber, the  following  infantry  organizations  were  reported  as  present: 
The  Fifth  Regiment,  from  the  Weber  Military  District,  under  Colonel 
Chauncy  W.  West;  the  Second  Regiment,  Second  Brigade,  under 
Colonel  Thomas  Callister;  '  Davis  County  troops,  under.  Colonel 
Philemon  C.  Merrill;  Provo  troops,  under  Colonel  W.  B.  Pace;  Pay- 
son  troops,  under  Major  A.  K.  Thurher;  Lehi  companies,  under  Major 
Hyde;  Extra  Battalion,  under  Major  Rowberry;  First  Battalion,  Third 
Regiment,  First  Brigade,  under  Major  Sharp;  Second  Battalion  of  the 
same  regiment,  under  Major  Blair;  and  the  Silver  Greys,  under  Colonel 
Harmon.  The  Second  Battalion  of  Life  Guards,  under  Major  John 
D.  T.  McAllister,  and  a  company  of  light  artillery  under  Adjutant 
Atwood,  were  also  present.  The  aggregate  force  was  nineteen  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  men,  commanded  by  Colonel  Nathaniel  V.  Jones. 
There  were  also  several  cavalry  commands,  under  Colonel  Rober.t  T. 
Burton,  Majors  Lot  Smith  and  William  Maxwell,  Captain  Andrew  Cun- 
ningham, O.  P.  Rockwell  and  others. 


144   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Leaving  most  of  his  men  in  camp,  the  General,  with  a  light 
escort,  went  on  to  Fort  Bridger.  He  had  previously  ordered 
Colonel  N.  V.  Jones,  with  the  main  body,  to  do  all  in  his  power 
to  render  the  canyon  impassable,  by  digging  trenches  and 
building  dams,  that  it  might  be  flooded;  and  by  constructing 
breastworks  and  piling  boulders  upon  the  heights,  for  use 

against  the  troops  if  they   at- 
tempted to  force  a  passage. 

Colonel  Burton's  Recon- 
noisance.  —  At  Fort  Bridger 
General  Wells  met  Colonel 
Robert  T.  Burton  who,  with  a 
bod}  of  cavalry,  had  been 
reconnoitering  since  the  middle 
of  August.  Two  of  his  com- 
mand, Briant  Strin^ham  and 
N.  V.  Jones,  had  guided  Cap- 
tain Van  Vliet  to  Salt  Lake 
City.  Colonel  Burton  reported 
the  establishment  of  Camp 
Winfield  and  the  location  of  the 
Government  supply  trains. 

General  Wells  and  Colonel 
Alexander. — On  the  last  day  of 
September  General  Wells  sent 
a  communication  to  Colonel 
Alexander,  calling  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  latter  had  dis- 
regarded the  proclamation  forbidding  armed  forces  to  enter 
Utah,  and  directing  him  to  retire,  or  else  disarm  his  force  and 
deposit  his  arms  and  ammunition  with  Lewis  Robison,  Quar- 
termaster-General of  the  Territory.  Enclosed  were  copies  of 
the  proclamation  and  a  letter  from  Governor  Young,  stating 
that  if  the  troops  fell  short  of  provisions  they  would  be  fur- 
nished on  application.  General  Wells  added  that  he  and  his 
men  were  there  to  carry  out  the  Governor's  instructions. 

Colonel  Alexander  answered  courteously,  stating  that  he 
would  submit  the  communication  to  the  Commanding  General 
as  soon  as  he  arrived.  "In  the  meantime,"  he  added,  "I  have 
only  to  say  that  these  troops  are  here  by  order  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  their  future  movements  will  depend 
entirely  upon  orders  issued  by  competent  military  authority.* 

*Colonel  Alexander  addressed  his  communication  to  "Brigham 
Young,  Esq.,  Governor  of  Utah  Territory."  Governor  Young  had  not 
heen.  officially  notified  of  the  appointment  of  his  successor,  nor  had 
that  'successor,  Governor  dimming,  qualified  for  the  discharge  of  his 
duties. 


ROBERT  T.   BURTON. 


THE  ECHO  CANYON  WAR. 


145 


A  Bloodless  Campaign. — Such  a  reply  was  doubtless  an- 
ticipated. An  alternative  plan  of  campaign  had  been  matured 
in  Salt  Lake  City  before  General  Wells  went  to  the  front. 
Steps  were  now  taken  to  convince  the  Government  that  the 
people  of  Utah  were  in  earnest,  and  would  not,  without  a  strug- 
gle, permit  the  army  to  pass  the  Wasatch  Mountains.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  determined  to  take  no  life,  unless  absolutely 
unavoidable,  and  orders  to  that  effect  were  issued.  Not  even 
when  fired  upon  by  the  Govern- 
ment troops,  did  the  militia  dis- 
regard these  instructions. 

Government  Trains  Burned. 

—Upon  the  return  of  his  mes- 
senger with  Colonel  Alexan- 
der's reply,  General  Wells  or- 
dered Major  Lot  Smith  to  turn 
back  or  burn  the  Government 
supply  trains  then  on  the  way 
to  Camp  Winfield.  On  the 
night  of  the  3rd  of  October, 
Major  Smith,  at  the  head  oi 
forty-three  mounted  rangers, 
set  out  toward  Green  River, 
and  after  riding  nearly  all  night 
came  upon  an  ox  train  moving 
westward.  The  captain,  a  man 
named  Rankin,  was  told  that 
he  must  "head  about"  and  go 
the  other  way.  "Where's  your 
authority?"  demanded  Rankin. 

"Here's  a  part  of  it,"  answered  Smith,  pointing  to  the  men 
behind  him,  "and  the  rest  is  out  there  in  the  brush."  Rankin, 
after  a  strong  protest,  started  eastward,  but  was  met  next  day 
by  Federal  troops,  who  took  out  his  lading,  leaving  the  wagons 
and  teams  standing.  Major  Smith  burned  the  next  trains  that 
he  encountered — two  commanded  by  Captain  Dawson,  and  one 
by  Captain  Simpson.  "For  God's  sake  don't  burn  the  trains!" 
pleaded  Dawson.  "It's  for  His  sake  that  I'm  going  to  burn 
them,"  said  Smith,  and  forthwith  the  torch  was  applied.  An 
Irishman  called  "Big  Jim,"  the  only  non-"Mormon"  among  the 
rangers,  was  one  of  the  torch  wielders.  Captain  Simpson  was 
out  hunting  cattle  when  the  cavalry  rode  up  and  disarmed  his 
teamsters.  He  was  a  brave  man,  and  would  have  fought,  had 
he  not  been  at  so  great  a  disadvantage.  Reluctantly  he  sur- 
rendered his  pistols,  and  was  allowed  to  keep  two  wagons 
loaded  with  provisions.  The  rangers  helped  themselves  to 


LOT  SMITH. 


146   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

whatever  they  needed,  and  then  rode  away,  "leaving  the 
wagons  all  ablaze."* 

The  Motive  Behind  the  Act. — Thus  it  was  that  Lot  Smith 
burned  the  Government  trains.  The  most  daring  part  of  the 
deed  was  the  order  directing  it.  If  the  people  of  Utah  could 
be  charged  with  treason  and  rebellion  upon  the  rumored  de- 
struction of  United  States  Court  records,  what  would  now  be 
said  and  done,  when  Government  property  had  actually  been 
destroyed,  and  the  proof  of  it  was  plain  and  unmistakable? 
Those  responsible  for  the  act  were  fully  aware  of  the  risk  they 
were  running.  They  were  determined  to  have  an  investiga- 
tion, and  a  leaf  from  the  book  of  Absalom  versus  Joab  (2  Sam- 
uel 14:29-33)  made  clear  to  them  the  most  effective  course  to 
pursue. 

Militia  Officers  Captured. — About  the  time  that  Lot  Smith 
started  upon  his  errand,  one  similar,  though  not  so  successful, 
was  undertaken  by  Major  Joseph  Taylor,  who  was  sent  with 
forty  or  fifty  men  "to  the  Oregon  road,  near  the  bend  of  Bear 
River,"  to  co-operate  with  Colonel  Burton  and  further  impede 
the  progress  of  Government  troops  and  trains.  "Burn  the 
whole  country  before  them  and  on  their  flanks ;  keep  them  from 
sleeping  by  night  surprises;  blockade  the  roads  by -felling  trees 
and  destroying  river  fords  ;  take  no  life,  but  destroy  their  trains, 
and  stampede  or  drive  away  their  animals  at  every  oppor- 
tunity." Such  were  the  instructions  that  Major  Taylor  set  out 
to  execute.  After  passing  Fort  Bridger  he  separated  from  his 
command  and  returned  to  that  post  upon  important  business. 
Coming  unexpectedly  upon  a  body  of  United  States  troops — 
for  the  infantry  were  again  on  the  march — he  and  his  adjutant, 
William  Stowell,  were  surrounded  and  captured.  Taylor 
eventually  escaped  and  rejoined  his  comrades,  but  Stowell  re- 
mained a  prisoner  until  the  "war"  was  over.f 

*The  trains  destroyed  belonged  to  Russell  and  Waddell,  Govern- 
ment contractors,  and  were  loaded  with  subsistence  stores  for  the 
army.  The  stores  included  clothing  and  provisions,  such  as  ham, 
bacon,  flour,  crackers,  beans,  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  vinegar,  dried  peaches, 
dessicated  vegetables,  molasses,  soap  and  candles. 

While  the  rangers  were  in  camp,  after  burning  the  trains,  one  of 
their  number.  Orson  P.  Arnold,  then  a  mere  youth,  was  dangerously 
wounded  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  a  rifle.  The  heavy  ball  passed 
through  his  thigh,  breaking  the  bone  in  a  dreadful  manner.  It  was 
feared  that  Arnold  would  bleed  to  death;  but  the  broken  bone  was  set, 
the  wound  ba-ndaged,  and  the  youth  placed  upon  an  improvised  litter 
of  poles  and  blankets  and  carried,  between  two  horses,  a  distance  of 
thirty  miles,  to  a  place  of  safety. 

tin  a  wallet  found  upon  the  person  of  Major  Taylor  when  lie  was 
captured  by  the  Federal  troops,  was  an  order  signed  by  General^  Wells, 
the  back  of  which  bore  the  usual  inscription,  "Shed  no  blood."  This 
order  was  taken  to  General  Johnston,  and  was  afterwards  sent  to 
Washington,  where  it  figured  in  the  Congressional  debates  of  the  next 
session. 


THE  ECHO  CANYON  WAR.  147 

Guerilla  Tactics.  —  Meantime  other  militia  commands 
were  scouring  the  country  along  the  route  of  the  advancing 
army,  annoying  it  every  hour  by  threatened  or  actual  raids. 
One  cause  of  discomfiture  to  the  troops  was  the  absence  of  their 
cavalry,  which  was  still  far  in  the  rear.  The  Utah  rangers 
were  well  mounted,  and  had  their  own  way  with  the  half  dis- 
heartened infantry.  None  of  the  shots  fired  at  the  rangers  took 
effect. 

An  Attempted  Detour. — Finding  the  direct  route  to  Salt 
Lake  Valley  barred  against  him,  Colonel  Alexander  attempted 
a  detour  toward  Soda  Springs,  there  to  await  milder  weather ; 
but  the  nimble  rangers  hung  upon  the  flanks  of  his  long  and 
cumbersome  column,  keeping  up  their  dispiriting  guerilla  war- 
fare. At  a  certain  place  he  expected  to  be  joined  by  Colonel 
Smith  with  supply  trains.  But  Smith  did  not  come;  he  had 
not  left  South  Pass,  and  with  Colonel  Cpoke  and  the  dragoons, 
still  farther  behind,  was  having  a  sad  experience  in  the  frost, 
snow,  and  biting  blasts  of  that  pitiless  region.  At  length 
Alexander  called  a  halt  and  convened  a  council  of  his  officers. 
Some  of  them  were  in  favor  of  forcing  a  passage  through  Echo 
Canyon,  but  cooler  counsels  prevailed.  That  it  would  be  im- 
prudent to  proceed  farther,  was  generally  admitted,  and  mat- 
ters now  came  to  a  standstill. 

Colonel  Alexander  and  Governor  Young. — On  the  12th  of 
October  Colonel  Alexander  wrote  to  Governor  Young,  com- 
plaining of  the  hostile  reception  given  to  United  States  troops 
on  the  threshold  of  the  Territory,  and  of  the  methods  by  which 
his  advance  was  being  opposed.  He  declared  that  these  acts 
constituted  rebellion  and  hostility  to  the  General  Government. 
"It  becomes  you  to  look  to  the  consequences,"  he  added. 
That  the  Governor  had  been  tampering  with  the  mails,  "inter- 
cepting public  and  private  letters."  was  also  intimated. 

Governor  Young,  in  reply,  acknowledged  that  he  had  pro- 
claimed martial  law  and  called  out  the  militia  to  enforce  his 
proclamation,  but  denied  that  he  had  intercepted  any  letters. 
He  reminded  Colonel  Alexander  that  the  Government  itself 
was  responsible  for  the  stopping  of  the  mails.  He  justified  the 
mode  of  warfare  by  which  the  citizens  were  defending  their 
homes,  and  again  commanded  the  troops  to  leave  the  Terri- 
tory; offering  to  assist  them  to  Fort  Hall  or  some  point  within 
reach  of  supplies  from  the  East.  In  conclusion  the  Governor 
invited  the  Colonel  and  his  officers  to  visit  Salt  Lake  City, 
without  troops,  promising  them  safe  escort  to  and  from  the 
town,  with  courteous  treatment  during  their  stay.* 

*In  another  letter,  written  two  days  earlier.  Governor  Young  had 
said  to  Colonel  Alexander:  "If  our  real  enemies,  the  mobocrats. 
priests,  editors,  and  politicians,  at  whose  instigation  the  present  storm 


148   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

General  Johnston  Arrives — "Forward  to  Fort  Bridger."- 

It  was  not  until  the  first  week  in  November  that  General  John- 
ston joined  Colonel  Alexander  on  Black's  Fork.  He  was  ac- 
companied by  Colonel  Smith  and  his  supply  trains.  Johnston 
was  a  great  commander.  He  soon  infused  new  life  into  the 
baffled  and  dispirited  troops.  Spurning  the  idea  of  departing 
a  single  point  from  the  direct  route  through  the  mountains,  he 
ordered  a  forward  movement  to  Fort  Bridger. 

If  Alexander's  advance  along  Ham's  Fork  had  been  a 
march  of  discouragement,  what  shall  be  said  of  Johnston's  pro- 
cession of  misery  from  Black's  Fork  to  Fort  Bridger?  The 
distance  was  only  thirty-five  miles,  but  the  country  crossed 
was  a  frozen  desert,  swept  by  November's  gelid  blasts,  with 
little  or  no  forage  for  the  famishing  cattle,  and  no  fuel  except 
sagebrush  and  willows.  Many  of  the  poor  beasts  dropped  dead 
as  they  wearily  trudged  along,  or  were  frozen  stiff  during  the 
awful  nights  that  succeeded  days  of  arduous  toil.  Five  hun- 
dred head  of  cattle  were  driven  off  the  night  before  the  march 
began.  Snow,  sleet,  and  hail  fell  almost  continuously,  the 
thermometer  showing  at  times  sixteen  degrees  below  zero. 
Some  of  the  men  were  severely  frost-bitten.  Fifteen  days 
were  consumed  in  reaching  the  point  where  till  recently  had 
stood  Fort  Bridger.  The  fort  itself  was  no  more,  having  been 
burned,  with  Fort  Supply,  by  the  militia,  who  were  slowly 
retiring  before  Johnston's  advance,  and  concentrating  behind 
the  rocky  ramparts  of  Echo  Canyon. 

Colonel  Cooke  and  the  Dragoons. — Colonel  Cooke  and  his 
cavalry  next  came  upon  the  scene.  They  had  had  a  terrible 
experience  in  the  storms  at  Devil's  Gate  and  South  Pass. 
Cooke  brought  one  hundred  and  forty-four  horses,  and  had 
lost  nearly  that  number  on  the  way.* 

has  been  gathered,  had  come  against  us,  instead  of  you  and  your  com- 
mand, I  should  never  have  addressed  them  thus.  They  never  would 
have  been  allowed  to  reach  South  Pass.  *  *  *  With  you,  per- 

sonally, we  have  no  quarrel.  *  *  While  I  appreciate  the  un- 

pleasantness of  your  position,  *  *  *  I  feel  it  my  duty,  as  do  the 
people  of  the  Territory  universally,  to  resist  to  the  utmost  every  at- 
tempt to  encroach  further  upon  their  rights." 

A  similar  correspondence  passed  between  Captain  R.  B.  Marcy, 
another  of  Johnston's  officers,  and  Elder  John  Taylor,  one  of  the 
Apostles  of  the  "Mormon"  Church. 

*Said  the  Colonel  in  his  report:  "Most  of  the  loss  has  occurred 
much  this  side  of  South  Pass,  in  comparatively  moderate  weather.  It 
lias  been  of  starvation;  the  earth  has  a  no  more  lifeless,  treeless,  grass- 
less  desert;  it  contains  scarcely  a  wolf  to  glut  itself  on  the  hundreds 
of  dead  and  frozen  animals  which  for  thirty  miles  nearly  block  the 
road.  With  abandoned  and  shattered  property,  they  mark  perhaps 
beyond  example  in  history,  the  steps  of  an  advancing  army  with  the 
horrors  of  a  disastrous  retreat/'  The  report  also  stated  that  the 
thermometer  one  night  marked  twenty-five  below  zero,  the  cold  being 
so  intense  that  a  bottle  of  sherry  wine  froze  in  a  trunk. 


THE  ECHO  CANYON  WAR.  149 

Camp  Scott  and  Eckelsville. — Owing  to  the  severity  of  the 
weather,  the  project  of  pushing  through  the  mountains  that 
season  was  abandoned.  The  ruins  of  Fort  Bridger  were 
utilized  for  the  storage  of  supplies,  and  the  troops  went  into 
winter  quarters  on  Black's  Fork.*  There  arose  Camp  Scott, 
named  as  Camp  Winfield  had  been,  for  the  General-in-chief  of 
the  United  States  Army.  Near  by  sprang  up  Eckelsville, 
called  after  Chief  Justice  Eckels,  who,  with  Governor  Cum- 
ming  and  other  Federal  officers,  dwelt  there  during  the  winter. 
The  Chief  Justice,  without  waiting  to  qualify  for  the  duties  of 
the  office,  organized  a  court,  with  a  grand  jury  of  teamsters 
and  camp  followers,  and  had  the  leading  men  of  Utah  indicted 
for  treason  and  rebellion. 

Governor  Cumming's  Proclamation. — Governor  Cumming, 
on  the  21st  of  November,  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  people 
of  the  Territory,  in  which  he  said :  "I  come  among  you  with 
no  prejudice  or  enmities,  and  by  the  exercise  of  a  just  and  firm 
administration  I  hope  to  command  your  confidence.  Freedom 
of  conscience  and  the  use  of  your  own  peculiar  mode  of  serving 
God  are  sacred  rights,  the  exercise  of  which  is  guaranteed  by 
the  Constitution,  and  with  which  it  is  not  the  province  of  the 
Government  or  the  disposition  of  its  representatives  in  the 
Territory  to  interfere."  He  then  directed  all  armed  bodies  to 
disband  and  return  to  their  homes.  Disobedience  to  this  com- 
mand, he  stated,  would  "subject  the  offenders  to  the  punish- 
ment due  to  traitors." 

Attitude  of  the  Militia. — The  militia  had  not  the  slightest 
intention  of  disbanding  at  the  dictum  of  the  new  Executive. 
They  were  defending  their  homes  against  the  despoiler — that 
was  their  view  of  the  case.  General  Johnston  might  threaten 
and  Governor  Cumming  proclaim,  Judge  Eckels  and  his  grand 
jury  might  grind  out  indictments,  and  the  whole  country  boil, 
as  it  did,  with  indignation,  both  at  the  "Mormons"  and  at  Pres- 
ident Buchanan  and  his  advisers,  for  creating  such  a  situation; 
but  the  citizen  soldiers,  behind  their  breastworks,  were  re- 
solved to  oppose  to  the  last  any  forward  movement  of  the 
Federal  army.  Reinforcements  from  all  over  Utah  hurried  to 
the  scene  of  the  impending  struggle — old  men,  young  men,  and 

*From  that  point,  Captain  Marcy  made  a  remarkable  midwinter 
trip  over  the  mountains  to  New  Mexico,  to  secure  horses  and  mules 
to  replace  those  which  had  perished,  and  make  it  possible  for  the  Ex- 
pedition to  move  forward  in  the  spring,  He  was  accompanied  by 
thirty-five  volunteer  companions.  His  Indian  guides  deserted  him,  fear- 
ing to  brave  the  awful  weather  encountered,  but  the  plucky  captain 
and  his  gallant  little  band  pushed  on  and  succeeded  in  accomplishing 
their  purpose.  About  1,500  animals  were  secured,  and  with  these 
Marcy  and  his  comrades  rejoined  Johnston  early  in  June,  1858. 


150    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

boys — until  the  force  confronting  General  Johnston  was  nearly 
twenty-five  hundred  strong,  or  about  equal  in  number  to  the 
regular  troops. 

Suspension  of  Hostilities. — When  it  became  evident  that 
General  Johnston  did  not  intend  to  carry  on  a  winter  cam- 
paign, all  further  interference  with  the  troops  by  the  militia 
was  forbidden.  Some  of  the  soldiers,  captured  by  Colonel 
Thomas  Callister,  were  released  by  order  of  Governor  Young, 
who  took  additional  steps  to  convince  the  authorities  at  Camp 
Scott  that  the  people  of  Utah  were  waging,  without  malice,  a 
purely  defensive  warfare.  Hearing  that  the  troops  were  in 
want  of  salt,  Governor  Young  sent  a  wagon  load  of  the  article 
with  his  compliments  to  the  post  commander,  informing  him 
.that  if  he  feared  anything  deleterious  in  the  salt,  the  messen- 
gers, Jesse  Earl  and  Henry  Woodward,  would  taste  it  in  his 
presence.  Johnston  spurned  the  gift,  desiring  "no  favors  from 
traitors  and  rebels ;"  but  the  rejected  salt,  left  outside  the  camp, 
was  gladly  used  by  the  common  soldiers,  who  purchased  some 
of  it  from  the  Indians.  A  supply  for  the  officers  was  procured 
with  great  difficulty  from  Fort  Laramie.* 

The  Echo  Canyon  Guard. — About  the  first  of  December 
the  militia  began  to  return  to  their  homes.  A  patrol  of  fifty 
men  under  Captain  John  R.  Winder  was  left  to  guard  Echo 
Canyon  and  its  approaches.  They  kept  strict  watch  upon  the 
Government  troops,  and  reported  every  movement  to  head- 
quarters in  Salt  Lake  City.  Deserters  from  Camp  Scott,  both 
soldiers  and  teamsters,  continued  to  pass  down  the  canyon, 
some  almost  perishing  with  cold  before  reaching  the  militia 
outposts.  By  these  and  other  means,  Governor  Young  and  his 
associates  were  kept  informed  regarding  affairs  east  of  the 
Wasatch  Mountains. 


*Some  of  Johnston's  officers  were  not  averse  to  accepting  favors 
from  those  whom  he  denominated  "traitors  and  rebels."  Colonel 
Alexander  and  Captain  Marcy  both  received  from  the  "Mormon"  au- 
thorities at  Salt  Lake  City  copies  of  the  Deseret  News,  which  cour- 
tesies they  gratefully  acknowledged. 


•    XV. 
MEDIATION,  PEACE  AND  PARDON. 

1858. 

Sentiment  in  the  East.— In  the  East  and  especially  at 
Washington,  much  anxiety  prevailed  relative  to  affairs  in  Utah. 
The  Government  was  indignant  over  the  disasters  that  had  be- 
fallen the  expedition,  and  must  have  winced  under  the  goad  of 
public  censure,  which  was  unsparingly  applied.  From  all  over 
the  land  hot  denunciation  was  poured  upon  the  "Mormons;" 
but  leading  newspapers  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  also 
criticized  the  course  taken  by  the  Administration.  The  Utah 
Expedition  became  known  as  "Buchanan's  Blunder."  During 
the  winter,  memorials  from  the  Legislature  and  the  citizens  of 
the  Territory,  setting  forth  the  true  situation,  were  forwarded 
to  the  national  capital. 

More  Troops  for  Utah. — The  Government,  however,  did 
not  recede.  Congress,  after  much  discussion,  during  which  the 
Utah  question  was  thoroughly 
ventilated,  granted  a  request 
from  the  President  for  more 
troops  and  money  to  carry  on 
the  "war."  Three  thousand 
men,  infantry,  cavalry,  and  ar- 
tillery, made  ready  to  cross  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  reinforce 
the  army  on  Black's  Fork.  The 
estimated  cost  of  this  supple- 
mental expedition  was  about 
five  million  dollars. 

Colonel  Kane  the  Media- 
tor.—At  this  juncture  Colonel 
Thomas  L.  Kane,  that  staunch 
friend  to  Utah,  who  had  known 
her  leading  men  upon  the  Iowa 
frontier,  proceeded  to  Wash- 
ington from  his  home  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  offered  his  services 
to  the  President  as  a  mediator 
between  the  General  Govern-  COFONEI  K\XE 

ment    and   the    people    of   this 

troubled  Territory.  Governor  Young  had  previously  com- 
municated with  Colonel  Kane,  explaining  his  motive  in  declar- 
ing martial  law  and  opposing  the  advance  of  the  Federal 


152     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

troops.  It  had  been  done,  he  said,  to  bring  about  an  investi- 
gation, and  the  Colonel  was  requested  to  convey  this  informa- 
tion to  the  President.  Samuel  W.  Richards  was  Governor 
Young's  messenger  to  Colonel  Kane.  The  latter's  offer  of 
mediation  was  accepted  by  the  head  of  the  Nation.* 

Colonel  Kane  was  in  delicate  health,  and  his  diplomatic 
mission  was  one  of  exceeding  difficulty.  Few  men  at  that  time 
could  have  undertaken  such  an  errand  with  any  prospect  of 
success.  Traveling  incognito  and  sailing  from  New  York  early 
in  January  1858,  he  crossed  the  Isthmus,  landed  on  the  Cali- 
fornia coast,  and  proceeded  by  the  southern  route  to  Utah,  ar- 
riving at  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  25th  of  February.  From  San 
Bernardino  he  had  as  a  traveling  companion  Joseph  S.  Tanner, 
a  prominent  citizen  of  Payson. 

At  Salt  Lake  City.— Though  introduced  to  the  "Mormon" 
leaders  as  "Doctor  Osborne" — that  being  the  name  he  had  as- 
sumed— Colonel  Kane  was  immediately  recognized  and  gladly 
welcomed  by  the  men  who  had  known  him  in  earlier  years.  A 
private  interview  followed  between  him  and  President  Young. 
At  its  conclusion  the  two  returned  into  the  presence  of  "The 
Council,"  whose  members  were  informed  by  Colonel  Kane  that 
Utah  had  a  good  friend  in  Captain  Van  Vliet  who,  leaving  Salt 
Lake  City  in  company  with  Delegate  Bernhisel,  had  visited 
Washington  and  used  his  influence  in  favor  of  the  Territory 
and  its  people.  The  Delegate  had  met  with  a  slight  show  of 
opposition,  but  had  been  permitted  to  take  his  seat,  notwith- 
standing the  strained  relations  between  Utah  and  the  General 
Government. 

At  Camp  Scott. — After  resting  a  few  days  at  the  capital, 
Colonel  Kane  set  out  for  Black's  Fork,  to  confer  with  Governor 
Cumming  upon  a  subject  previously  discussed  with  the  leading 
men  at  Salt  Lake  City.  They  were  willing  to  receive  the  new 
civic  officers  and  give  them  a  hearty  welcome,  if  they  would 
come  in  without  the  army.  Colonel  Kane  bore  this  message 
to  Camp  Scott,  distant  one  hundred  and  thirteen  miles,  with 
deep  snow  all  the  way.  He  arrived  there  on  the  12th  of 
March.  Dismissing  his  escort  outside  the  Federal  lines,  he 
was  about  to  enter  them,  when  he  was  challenged  and  fired 
upon  by  an  over-zealous  sentry,  who  received  in  return  a  blow 
on  the  head  from  the  Colonel's  gun  stock.  Surrounded  in  a 

*President  Buchanan  in  his  next  message  to  Congress  said:  "I 
cannot  refrain  from  mentioning  the  valuable  services  of  Colonel 
Thomas  L.  Kane,  who,  from  motives  of  pure  benevolence,  and  without 
any  official  character  or  pecuniary  compensation,  visited  Utah  during 
the  last  inclement  winter  for  the  purpose  of  contributing  to  the  pacifi- 
cation of  the  Territory." 


MEDIATION,  PEACE  AND  PARDON.  153 

moment  by  soldiers,  all  greatly  excited,  he  coolly  requested  to 
be  conducted  to  the  presence  of  Governor  Cumming. 

The  Governor  greeted  him  cordially,  and  was  soon  con- 
vinced of  the  wisdom  and  propriety  of  the  course  that  he  ad- 
vised. He  agreed  to  place  himself  under  the  guidance  of  Col- 
onel Kane  and  go  with  him,  unaccompanied  by  troops,  to  the 
Utah  capital.  General  Johnston  strongly  opposed  this  step 
and  endeavored  to  dissuade  the  Governor  from  his  purpose, 
but  the  latter  remained  firm.  His  attitude  at  that  time  was  the 
beginning  of  a  breach  between  him  and  the  military  com- 
mander. The  other  civic  officers  decided  to  remain  at  Camp 
Scott. 

Almost  a  Duel. — As  for  Colonel  Kane,  a  duel  between  him 
and  General  Johnston  was  barely  averted.  The  General,  affect- 
ing to  regard  the  Colonel  as  a  spy,  sent  an  orderly  to  arrest 
him,  whereupon  Governor  Cumming,  insulted  at  the  indignity 
offered  his  guest,  demanded  an  explanation.  Johnston  de- 
clared that  a  mistake  had  been  made  by  his  messenger,  the  sup- 
posed order  of  arrest  being  in  reality  an  invitation  to  dinner. 
Colonel  Kane,  unconvinced,  sent  a  challenge,  which  the  com- 
mander would  have  accepted,  it  is  said,  had  he  not  feared  dis- 
missal from  the  service.  Through  the  influence  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice Eckels,  the  "affair  of  honor"  terminated  without  a  meet- 
ing.* 

Governor  Cumming  to  the  Capital. — On  the  fifth  of  April, 
Governor  Cumming,  with  Colonel  Kane  and  two  servants,  set 
out  for  Salt  Lake  City.  They  were  met  on  the  way  by  General 
William  H.  Kimball,  at  the  head  of  a  company  of  cavalry,  and 
escorted  through  Echo  and  Weber  canyons.  Part  of  the  jour- 
ney was  in  the  night  time,  and  the  hills  on  either  side  were 
bright  with  bonfires,  kindled  by  the  handful  of  guards  patrol- 
ing  the  passes.  They  were  instructed  to  have  some  of  their 
number  march  round  and  round  the  fires,  with  a  view  to  creat- 
ing the  impression  that  the  canyon  was  alive  with  armed  men. 
Every  few  rods  the*  Governor's  carriage  was  stopped  by  a  de- 
mand for  the  countersign.  This  being  given,  apparently  to 
some  sentry  by  the  wayside,  but  in  reality  to  one  from  another 
of  the  Governor's  escort,  the  vehicle  was  allowed  to  proceed. 
This  ruse  was  expected  to  convince  his  Excellency,  who  would 
of  course  inform  General  Johnston,  that  the  little  force  at  Camp 
Scott  was  altogether  unequal  to  the  mighty  host  confronting 
him,  and  that  he  had  done  a  wise  thing  in  not  attempting  to 
force  a  passage  through  the  mountains.  At  Ogden,  for  a 

*Thc  duel  incident,  and  that  of  the  over-zealous  sentry,  are  related 
by  Edward  W.  Tullidge  in  his  Life  of  Brigham  Young  (p.  292)  and  in 
his  History  of  Salt  Lake  City  (p.  205). 


154      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


similar  reason,  the  Governor  was  treated  to  a  display  of  expert 
horsemanship  by  George  Bartholomew,  a  circus  rider,  who, 
with  a  trick  pony,  went  through  some  wonderful  perform- 
ances, which  were  palmed  off  upon  his  Excellency  as  a  sample 
of  the  ordinary  evolutions  of  the  militia  cavalry. 

A  Cordial  Reception. — Near  the  Warm  Springs,  Mayor 
Smoot  and  other  municipal  officers  received  Governor  Gum- 
ming and  conducted  him  to  lodgings  previously  prepared  for 
his  accommodation.  He  was  received  into  the  hospitable 
home  of  William  C.  Staines,  the  Territorial  Librarian.  Presi- 
dent Brigham  Young  called  upon  him,  and  during  repeated 
interviews  offered  him  "every  facility  that  he  might  require 

for  the  efficient  performance  of 
his  administrative  duties."  Gov- 
ernor Gumming  so  stated  in  a 
letter  to  General  Johnston, 
written  ten  days  after  leaving 
Camp  Scott.  In  the  same  letter 
its  writer  said  :  "I  have  been 
everywhere  recognized  as  Gov- 
ernor of  Utah ;  and  so  far  from 
having  encountered  insults  or 
indignities,  I  am  gratified  in  be- 
ing able  to  state  to  you,  that  in 
passing  through  the  settle- 
ments I  have  been  universally 
greeted  with  such  respectful  at- 
tentions as  are  due  to  the  rep- 
resentative authority  of  the 
United  States  in  the  Territory." 
Records  Found  Intact. — 
Governor  Gumming,  on  the 
second  day  of  May,  sent  a  re- 
port to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Lewis  M.  Gass,  informing  him 
that  he  had  examined  the  records  of  the  Supreme  Court  and 
of  the  District  Courts  in  Utah,  and  had  found  them  "perfect 
and  unimpaired."  He  also  reported  that  the  Legislative 
records  and  other  books  belonging  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
were  in  perfect  preservation,  and  that  the  Territorial  Library 
had  been  kept  by  Mr.  Staines  in  excellent  condition. 

And  here  the  bubble  burst!  The  "Gentile"  Governor  of 
Utah,  in  thus  reporting  the  facts,  gave  a  complete  refutation 
of  the  flagrant  falsehood  invented  by  Judge  Drummond  and 
sworn  to  by  Judge  Stiles,  charging  that  those  records  had  been 
destroyed. 

At  the  Tabernacle. — The  same  report  described  a  Sabbath 


GOVERNOR   GUMMING. 


MEDIATION,  PEACE  AND  PARDON.  155 

meeting  at  the  Old  Tabernacle,  where  Governor  Gumming  was 
introduced  by  President  Young  and  invited  to  address  the  con- 
gregation. What  follows  within  quotation  marks  is  the  Gov- 
ernor's own  language : 

"They  listened  respectfully  to  all  I  had  to  say — approvingly  even,  I 
fancied — when  I  explained  to  them  what  I  intended  should  be  the  char- 
acter of  my  administration."  Afterwards,  "several  powerful  speakers" 
followed  in  succession,  referring  among  other  things  to  the  military 
posse  and  its  purposes.  "At  the  bare  mention  of  the  troops  a  scene 
of  wild  uproar  ensued,  the  congregation  joining  with  the  speakers  in 
a  thundrous  protest  against  the  coming  of  the  army;  more  frenzy  than 
I  had  expected  to  witness  among  a  people  who  habitually  exercise 
great  self-control."  "I  informed  them  that  they  were  entitled  to  a 
trial  by  their  peers;  that  I  had  no  intention  of  stationing  the  army 
in  immediate  contact  with  their  settlements,  and  that  the  military 
posse  would  not  be  resorted  to  until  other  means  of  arrest  had  been 
tried  and  failed.  I  found  the  greatest  difficulty  in  explaining  these 
points,  so  great  was  the  excitement.  Eventually,  however,  the  efforts 
of  Brigham  Young  were  successful  in  calming  the  tumult."  "More 
than  one  speaker  has  since  expressed  his  regret  at  having  been  betrayed 
into  intemperance  of  language  in  my  presence. "--"The  President  and 
the  American  people  will  learn  with  gratification  the  auspicious  issue 
of  our  difficulties  here." 

Another  "Mormon"  Exodus. — The  trouble,  however,  was 
not  yet  over,  as  the  Governor's  report  went  on  to  show. 
Said  he: 

"I  regret  the  necessity  which  compels  me  to  mingle  with  my  con- 
gratulations the  announcement  of  a  fact  that  will  occasion  great  con- 
cern. The  people,  including  the  inhabitants  of  Salt  Lake  City,  are 
moving  from  every  settlement  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Territory. 
The  roads  are  everywhere  filled  with  wagons  loaded  with  provisions 
and  household  furniture,  the  women  and  children  often  without  shoes 
or  hats,  driving  their  flocks  they  know  not  where.  They  seem  not  only 
resigned  but  cheerful.  'It  is  the  will  of  the  Lord,'  and  they  rejoice  to 
exchange  the  comforts  of  home  for  the  trials  of  the  wilderness.  Their 
ultimate  destination  is  not,  I  presume,  definitely  fixed  upon.  'Going 
south,'  seems  sufficiently  definite  for  the  most  of -them,  but  many  be 
lieve  that  their  ultimate  destination  is  Sonora.* 

"Young,  Kimball,-and  most  of  the  influential  men  have  left  their 
commodious  mansions,  without  apparent  regret,  to  lengthen  the  long 
train  of  wanderers.  The  masses  everywhere  announce  to  me  that  the 
torch  will  be  applied  to  every  house  indiscriminately  throughout  the 
country,  so  soon  as  the  troops  attempt  to  cross  the  mountains.  ] 
shall  follow  these  people  and  try  to  rally  them. 

"Our  military  force  could  overwhelm  most  of  these  poor  people, 
involving  men,  women,  and  children  in  a  common  fate;  but  there  arc 
among  the  'Mormons'  many  brave  men,  accustomed  to  arms  and 
horses;  men  who  could  fight  desperately  as  guerillas;  and  who,  if  the 
settlements  are  destroyed,  will  subject  the  country  to  an  expensive 
and  protracted  war,  without  any  compensating  results.  They  will,  T 

*Sonora  at  that  time  was  Northern  Mexico,  including  Arizona,  as 
far  northward  as  the  present  city  of  Tucson. 


156     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

am  sure,  submit  to  'trial  by  their  peers,'  but  they  will  not  brook  the 
idea  of  trials  by  'juries'  composed  of  'teamsters  and  followers  of  the 
camp/  nor  of  an  army  encamped  in  their  cities  or  dense  settlements. 
I  have  adopted  means  to  recall  the  few  'Mormons'  remaining  in  arms, 
who  have  not  yet,  it  is  said,  complied  with  my  request  to  withdraw 
from  the  canyons  and  eastern  frontiers.  I  have  also  taken  measures 
to  protect  the  buildings  which  have  been  vacated  in  the  northern 
settlements.  I  am  sanguine  that  I  will  save  a  great  part  of  the  valuable 
improvements  there. 

"I  shall  leave  this  city  for  the  south  tomorrow.  After  I  have 
finished  my  business  there,  I  shall  return  as  soon  as  possible  to  the 
army,  to  complete  the  arrangements  which  will  enable  me  before  long, 
I  trust,  to  announce  that  the  road  between  California  and  Missouri 
may  be  traveled  with  perfect  security  by  trains  and  emigrants  of  every 
description.  I  shall  restrain  all  operations  of  the  military  for  the 
present,  which  will  probably  enable  me  to  receive  from  the  President 
additional  instructions,  if  he  deems  it  necessary  to  give  them." 

It  was  even  as  Governor  Gumming  reported.  Finding 
that  the  Federal  Government  was  determined  to  quarter  its 
troops  within  the  Territory,  and  having  no  faith  in  the  assur- 
ance that  their  rights  would  be  respected  by  the  military,  the 
people  of  Utah  had  resolved  upon  another  exodus.  Men, 
women,  and  children  had  abandoned  their  homes  and  were 
moving  southward,  leaving  behind  them  only  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  guards  to  set  fire  to  nouses,  orchards  and  farms,  if  a  door 
latch  should  be  lifted  or  a  gate  swung  open  by  hostile  hand. 

Brigham  Young  had  said  to  Captain  Van  Vliet,  when  the 
latter  declared  that  the  Government  would  send  enough  troops 
to  overcome  all  opposition,  "We  are  aware  that  such  will  be 
the  case,  but  when  those  troops  arrive  they  will  find  Utah  a 
desert."  He  was  now  preparing  to  make  good  his  word.  The 
army  might  force  its  way  through  the  mountains,  but  when  it 
reached  "Zion,"  it  would  find  "a  desolation,"  "a  city  not  in- 
habited." The  "fruitful  field"  would  be  turned  into  a  "desert," 
the  land  of  smiling  orchards  into  a  burnt  and  blackened  waste. 

Meaning  of  "The  Move." — Possibly  the  "Mormon"  leader 
had  another  purpose  in  view.  While  sternly  resolved,  if 
pushed  to  extremes,  to  "utterly  lay  waste  the  land,"  he  may 
have  had  in  mind  the  trial  of  a  great  moral  experiment.  A 
consummate  strategist,  he  knew  that  the  movement  then  in 
progress  was  the  best  possible  method  of  attracting  toward 
Utah  the  gaze  of  the  civilized  world,  and  of  turning  the  fickle 
tide  of  public  opinion  in  favor  of  the  fugitive  people.  The 
burning  of  the  supply  trains  had  brought  Colonel  Kane,  who 
was  now  on  his  way  back  to  Washington  to  report  the  suc- 
cess of  his  mediating  mission.  "The  Move,"  as  the  new  ex- 
odus was  called,  might  be  depended  upon  to  induce  the  Gov- 
ernment to  fully  investigate  the  Utah  situation.  If  this  hope 
failed,  the  worst  was  foreseen  and  provided  against. 


MEDIATION,  PEACE  AND  PARDON.  157 

Press  Comments. — The  New  York  Times  expressed  itself 
upon  the  subject  thus : 

"Whatever  our  opinions  may  be  of  Mormon  morals  or  Mormon 
manners,  there  can  be  no  question  that  this  voluntary  abandonment  by 
forty  thousand  people,  of  homes  created  by  wonderful  industry  in  the 
midst  of  trackless  wastes,  after  years  of  hardships  and  persecution,  is 
something  from  which  no  one  who  has  a  particle  of  sympathy  with 
pluck,  fortitude,  and  constancy  can  withhold  his  admiration.  Right  or 
wrong,  sincerity  thus  attested  is  not  a  thing  to  be  sneered  at.  True 
or  false,  a  faith  to  which  so  many  men  and  women  prove  their  loyalty 
by  such  sacrifices,  is  a  force  in  the  world.  After  this  last  demonstra- 
tion of  what  fanaticism  can  do,  we  think  it  would  be  unwise  to  treat 
Mormonism  as  a  nuisance  to  be  abated  by  a  posse  comitatus.  It  is  no 
longer  a  social  excrescence  to  be  cut  off  by  the  sword;  it  is  a  power  to 
be  combatted  only  by  the  most  skillful,  political  and  moral  treatment. 
When  people  abandon  their  homes  to  plunge  with  women  and  children 
into  the  wilderness,  to  seek  new  settlements,  they  know  not  where, 
they  give  a  higher  proof  of  courage  than  if  they  fought  for  them. 
When  the  Dutch  submerged  Holland  to  save  it  from  invaders,  they 
had  heartier  plaudits  showered  upon  them  than  if  they  had  fertilized 
its  soil  with  their  blood.  We  have  certainly  the  satisfaction  of  know- 
ing that  we  have  to  deal  with  foemen  worthy  of  our  steel. 

"Were  we  not  guilty  of  culpable  oversight  in  confounding  their 
persistent  devotion  with  the  insubordination  of  ribald  license,  and 
applying  to  the  one  the  same  harsh  treatment  which  the  law  intends 
fcr  the  latter  alone?  Was  it  right  to  send  troops  composed  of  the 
wildest  and  most  rebellious  men  of  the  community,  commanded  by 
men  like  Harney  and  Johnston,  to  deal  out  fire  and  sword  upon  a 
people,  whose  faults  even  were  the  result  of  honest  religious  convic- 
tions? Was  it  right  to  allow  Johnston  to  address  letters  to  Brigham 
Young,  and  through  him  to  his  people,  couched  in  the  tone  of  an 
implacable  conqueror  toward  ruthless  savages?  *  We  stand 

on  the  vantage  ground  of  higher  knowledge,  purer  faith,  and  acknowl- 
edged strength.  We  can  afford  to  be  merciful.  At  all  events  the 
world  looks  to  us  for  an  example  of  political  wisdom  such  as  few 
people,  nowadays,  are  called  on  to  display/'* 

The  Stephen  A.  Douglas  Speech. — The  New  York  paper's 
editorial  utterances  were  a  reminder  of,  perhaps  a  reply  to, 
Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas  who,  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  June 
12,  1857,  had  delivered  a  political  speech  wherein  he  referred  to 
rumors  then  afloat  that  the  "Mormons,"  "bound  by  horrible 
oaths  and  terrible  penalties  to  recognize  and  maintain  the  au- 
thority of  Brigham  Young  and  the  Government  of  which  he 
is  head  as  paramount  to  that  of  the  United  States  in  civil  as 

*The  London  Times  used  this  language  in  commenting  upon  the 
fugitive  "Mormons:"  "There  is  much  that  is  noble  in  their  devotion 
to  their  delusions.  They  step  into  the  waves  of  the  Great  Basin  with 
as  much  reliance  on  their  leader  as  the  descendants  of  Jacob  felt  when 
they  stepped  between  the  walls  of  water  in  the  Red  Sea.  The  ancient 
world  had  individual  Curiatii,  Horatii,  and  other  examples  of  heroism 
and  devotion;  but  these  western  peasants  seem  to  be  a  nation  of  heroes, 
ready  to  sacrifice  everything  rather  than  surrender  one  of  their  wives, 
or  a  letter  from  Joe  Smith's  golden  plates." 


158      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

well  as  in  religious  affairs,"  would  in  due  time,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  their  leaders,  use  all  the  means  in  their  power  to  sub- 
vert the  Federal  Government.  The  "Mormons,"  he  said,  were 
reported  to  be  forming  alliances  with  Indian  tribes,  and  organ- 
izing bands  of  "Danit.es"  or  "Destroying  Angels,"  to  prosecute 
a  system  of  robbery  and  murder  upon  American  citizens  who 
supported  the  authority  of  the  United  States  and  denounced 
"the  infamous  and  disgusting  practices  and  institutions  of  the 
Mormon  government."  Basing  his  remarks  upon  these 
rumors,  Douglas  said :  "Should  such  a  state  of  things  actually 
exist  as  we  are  led  to  infer,  from  the  reports,  and  such  informa- 
tion come  in  official  shape,  the  knife  must  be  applied  to  this 
pestiferous  and  disgusting  cancer,  which  is  gnawing  into  the 
very  vitals  of  the  body  politic.  It  must  be  cut  out  by  the 
roots,  and  seared  over  with  the  red  hot  iron  of  stern  an.d  un- 
flinching law."* 

Mrs.  Gumming  Pleads  for  the  People. — Governor  Gum- 
ming did  not  succeed  in  persuading  the  "Mormon"  people  to 
remain  in  their  homes.  Returning  from  Camp  Scott,  whither 
he  had  gone  about  the  middle  of  May  to  bring  his  wife  to  Salt 
Lake  City,  he  found  the  place  almost  deserted.  In  the  gardens 
were  heaped  bundles  of  straw  and  other  combustibles;  every 
preparation  having  been  made  for  the  burning.  Mrs.  Gum- 
ming was  so  affected  by  the  sight  that  she  burst  into  tears, 
expressing  deep  sympathy  for  the  homeless  wanderers.  She 
entreated  her  husband  not  to  allow  the  army  to  remain  in  the 
city,  and  begged  him  to  do  something  to  bring  the  people  back. 
"Rest  assured,  madam,"  said  the  kind-hearted  old  Governor, 
"I  shall  do  all  I  can.  I  only  wish  I  could  be  in  Washington 
for  two  hours;  I  am  sure  I  could  convince  the  Government 
that  we  have  no  need  for  troops." 

*Judge  Douglas,  in  Illinois,  had  been  on  very  friendly  terms  with 
the  "Mormon"  people,  and  it  was  partly  through  their  political  influ- 
ence that  he  became  a  United  States  Senator.  In  conversation  with 
Joseph  Smith,  between  whom  and  "The  Little  Giant"  there  existed  the 
most  cordial  relations,  the  latter  was  told  that  he  would  yet  aspire  to 
be  President  of  the  United  States,  but  that  if  he  ever  used  his  influence 
to  injure  the  Latter-day  Saints,,  the  hand  of  God  would  be  against  him. 
After  the.  Springfield  speech  this  prophecy  was  published  in  the  Deseret 
News,  and  its  fulfillment  was  confidently  looked  for  in  Utah.  In  1860 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  became  the  Democratic  candidate  for  President, 
and  was  overwhelmingly  defeated  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  standard- 
bearer  of  the  Republicans. 

The  Douglas  speech  was  regarded  as  a  Democratic  attempt  to 
rival  the  bid  for  popularity  made  by  the  Republican  party,  which,  at 
its  inception  in  1856,  had  pledged  itself  to  the  extirpation  of  "slavery 
and  polygamy,"  as  "twin  relics  of  barbarism."  John  C.  Fremont,  a 
pronounced  Anti-Mormon,  was  then  the  Republican  candidate  for 
President. 


MEDIATION,  PEACE  AND  PARDON.  159 

The  President  Congratulates  Congress. — President  Bu- 
chanan, on  receiving  from  Secretary  Cass  the  report  of  Gov- 
ernor Cumming,  addressed  a  communication  to  Congress,  con- 
gratulating the  Senators  and  Representatives  upon  the  pros- 
pective termination  of  the  Utah  troubles.  He  expressed  the 
opinion  that  there  would  be  no  occasion  to  make  any  further 
appropriations  for  the  purpose  of  quelling  disturbances  in  this 
Territory. 

The  Peace  Commission. — Peace  Commissioners  were  sent 
by  the  President  to  confer  with  the  "Mormon"  leaders  and 
offer  a  free  pardon  to  all  persons  who  would  manifest  their 
loyalty  to  the  Government.  The  Commissioners  were  Gov- 
ernor L.  W.  Powell  of  Kentucky  and  Major  Ben  McCulloch 
of  Texas.  Leaving  Fort  Leavenworth  late  in  April,  1858,  they 
made  their  way  to  Camp  Scott,  and  early  in  June  arrived  at 
Salt  Lake  City.  Jacob  Forney,  Indian  Superintendent  for 
Utah,  came  with  them.  These  officials  and  Governor  Cum- 
ming, met  with  Brigham  Young  and  other  prominent  men, 
who  had  returned  from  the  south  for  that  purpose.  At  the 
meetings,  which  were  held  in  the  Council  House,  June  llth 
and  12th,  the  existing  troubles,  with  the  proposed  pardon,  were 
plainly  and  thoroughly  discussed.  The  Commissioners  were 
urged  by  the  "Mormon"  leaders  to  investigate  the  charges 
which  had  formed  the  ostensible  basis  for  the  Government's 
military  expedition,  but  they  declined  to  do  so,  holding  that 
they  were  not  there  to  inquire  into  and  adjudicate  past  issues, 
but  to  deal  with  present  conditions  and  present  the  conditional 
offer  of  amnesty.  President  Young  and  his  associates  denied 
that  they  had  ever  been  disloyal,  and  disputed  the  truth  of  the 
accusation  that  they  .had  driven  away  Federal  officers  or  pre- 
vented any  civic  officer  from  entering  the  Territory.  They 
accepted,  however,  for  themselves  and  for  their  people,  the 
proffered  pardon  for  such  overt  acts  as  the  burning  of  the 
supply  trains  and  the  running  off  of  the  army  cattle.  More- 
over, they  agreed  not  to  oppose  Johnston's  march  through 
Salt  Lake  City,  provided  he  .would  not  quarter  his  troops 
within  forty  miles  of  the  town.  The  date  of  President  Bu- 
chanan's pardon  was  April  6,  1858. 

General  Johnston's  Proclamation. — At  the  close  of  the 
conference  the  Commissioners  addressed  an  epistle  to  General 
Johnston,  informing  him  of  what  had  been  said  and  done,  and 
advising  him  to  publicly  proclaim  that  the  army  would  not 
trespass  upon  the  rights  or  property  of  peaceable  citizens. 
Johnston,  who  was  then  advancing,  replied  from  his  camp  on 
Bear  River,  expressing  surprise  at  the  uneasiness  felt,  and 
adding  that  if  no  obstructions  were  presented  to  the  discharge 


160     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  his  duties  in  execution  of  orders  from  the  War  Department, 
there  need  be  no  apprehension  that  any  person  would  have 
cause  for  complaint.  He  issued  the  desired  proclamation, 
however,  giving  assurance  that  no  one  would  be  molested  in 
person,  in  rights,  or  in  the  peaceful  pursuit  of  his  avocations. 
The  People  Hesitate. — Most  of  the  people  who  had  gone 
south  were  at  Provo  or  in  other  parts  of  Utah  County.  Some 
had  reached  Fillmore  and  points  beyond.*  Governor  Gum- 
ming and  the  Peace  Commissioners  followed  the  fugitives  as 
far  as  Provo,  entreating  them  to  return  and  pledging  them 
complete  protection.  Still  the  people  hesitated.  They  were 
waiting  to  see  how  the  troops  would  conduct  themselves. 

Federal  Troops  Pass  Through  Salt  Lake  City.— On  the 
26th  of  June,  General  Johnston  at  the  head  of  his  little  army 
descended  Emigration  Canyon  and  entered  Salt  Lake  Valley. 
Passing  through  the  all  but  deserted  city,  he  crossed  the  Jordan 
River  and  encamped  about  two  miles  from  the  center  of  the 
town.  Some  of  his  officers  and  men  were  profoundly  moved  by 
what  they  beheld  as  they  rode  through  the  silent  streets. 
Colonel  Cooke,  it  is  said,  bared  his  head  in  honor  of  the  brave 
men  whom  he  had  formerly  led  in  their  country's  cause  against 
Mexico.  The  troops  preserved  excellent  order,  and  true  to  the 
pledge  given  by  their  commander,  molested  neither  person  nor 
property.  They  remained  upon  the  Jordan  three  days,  and 
then  marched  to  Cedar  Valley,  thirty-six  miles  southward, 
where  they,  founded  Camp  Floyd,  so  named  after  the  Secretary 
of  War. 

End  of  the  Episode. — About  the  last  of  June  the  people 
who  had  left  their  homes  began  to  return  to  them,  and  the  de- 
serted towns  and  villages  were  again  inhabited.  Governor 
Gumming  proclaimed  peace,  based  upon  the  acceptance  of  the 
President's  pardon,  and  so  ended  the  Echo  Canyon  War. 

*The  press  of  the  Deseret  News  was  taken  to  Fillmore,  and  sev- 
eral numbers  of  the  paper  were  issued  there;  Albert  Carrington  being 
editor.  Willard  Richards,  the  first  editor  of  the  News,  had  died  March 
11,  1854. 


XVI. 

CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES. 

1858-1861 

How  Johnston's  Army  Affected  Utah. — Johnston's  army 
proved  both  a  benefit  and  a  detriment  to  Utah.  The  .founding 
of  Camp  Floyd  furnished  employment  to  masons,  carper- 
ters,  and  other  workmen,  who  built  the  Government  barracks 
in  Cedar  Valley;  and  it  also  provided  a  near  and  ready  mar- 
ket for  the  products  of  farm,  ranch  and  dairy.  Opportunities 
to  profit  by  the  presence  of  the  troops  were  not  lost  sight  of 
by  enterprising  settlers;  contractors  and  merchants  especially 
taking  advantage  of  the  commercial  chance  afforded.  Sus- 
pension of  travel  over  the  plains,  with  the  consequent  break- 
ing up  of  local  business  houses,  had  deprived  the  people  of 
many  comforts,  which  were  now  obtainable.  In  exchange  for 
flour,  grain,  beef,  butter,  eggs,  poultry,  and  dried  fruits,  they 
received  cash,  groceries,  clothing,  and  other  necessaries.  In 
a  material  way  the  community  was  greatly  benefited. 

On  the  other  hand  various  evils  were  introduced,  trace- 
able mainly  to  the  camp  followers  who  came  with  the  troops. 
General  Johnston's  strict  discipline  could  not  always  hold  in 
check  the  unruly  spirits  included  in  or  connected  with  his 
command.  Discharged  teamsters  and  other  ex-employes  from 
the  military  post  were  a  source  of  much  trouble  to  the  com- 
munity. Rough  characters  flocked  in  from  East  and  West, 
and  vices  hitherto  unfamiliar  in  Utah  began  to  flourish,  in 
spite  of  law,  public  sentiment,  and  a  continually  augmenting 
police  force.  Now  and  then  a  reputable  citizen  would  fall  be- 
neath the  knife  or  bullet  of  a  drink-crazed  desperado,  but  more 
frequently  the  ruffians  slew  each  other,  in  which  event  the 
mourning  was  not  widespread.  Some  of  the  evil  was  directly 
chargeable  to  officers  and  soldiers  at  Camp  Floyd.  More  than 
one  unfortunate  woman  dated  her  ruin  from  the  hour  she 
formed  acquaintance  with  such  characters.  The  Indians  in 
that  vicinity  became  woefully  corrupt  as  a  result  of  their 
proximity  to  the  garrison.* 

*Governor  dimming,  in  a  report  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  dre-w 
the  following  character  portrait  of  the  people  of  Utah  at  that  time: 

"Persons  unbiased  by  prejudice  who  have  visited  this  Territory 
will,  I  think,  agree  in  the  opinion  that  a  community  is  seldom  seen 
more  marked  by  quiet  and  peaceable  diligence  than  that  of  the  Mor- 
mons. 

"After  the  passage  of  the  army,  hundreds  of  adventurers  were 
attracted  to  these  valleys,  and  met  here  some  congenial  spirits. 

1O 


162      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  Spencer-Pike  Homicide.— There  was  some  friction 
between  civilians  and  soldiers.  One  of  the  tragic  events  of  the 
time  was  the  killing  of  Sergeant  Ralph  Pike  by  Howard 
Spencer,  in  retaliation  for  an  assault  committed  by  the  former 
upon  the  latter.  Pike  was  a  young  man,  Spencer  little  more 
than  a  boy,  and  Rush  Valley,  west  of  Camp  Floyd,  the  scene 
of  the  provocation.  In  the  northern  part  of  that  valley,  near 
the  line  of  the  Government  reserve  taken  possession  of  by 
General  Johnston,  the  Spencer-Little  Ranch  was  located.  To 
that  place  the  Sergeant,  with  a  squad  of  soldiers,  came  one 
evening  (March  22,  1859)  and  ordered  Spencer  to  move  his 
cattle  off  some  land  where  the  men  from  camp  purposed  mow- 
ing hay.  Receiving  the  reply  that  it  was  too  dark  to  collect 
the  cattle,  and  that  they  would  not  be  moved  till  morning, 
Pike,  with  his  gun  barrel,  struck  Spencer  a  fearful  blow  on 
the  head,  inflicting  an  almost  fatal  wound.  Recovering  after 
many  weeks,  but  never  entirely  regaining  himself  physically 
or  mentally,  the  victim  of  the  assault  met  and  shot  his  assail- 
ant, who  had  come  from  Camp  Floyd  to  Salt  Lake  City  to 
answer  for  his  offense  in  the  District  Court.  The  shooting 
took  place  on  Main  Street,  August  llth,  in  the  presence  of 
a  military  guard,  with  officers,  from  the  post.  Spencer  suc- 
ceeded in  escaping.  Pike  was  carried  into  the  Salt  Lake 
House,  where  a  few  days  later  he  died.* 

The  Cedar  Fort  Raid.- — Spencer  being  a  "Mormon,"  some 
of  the  Camp  Floyd  soldiers,  in  revenge  for  the  loss  of  their 
comrade,  made  a  raid,  the  night  after  Pike's  death,  upon  Cedar 
Fort,  a  little  settlement  six  miles  north  of  the  post.  They  set 
fire  to  haystacks  and  sheds,  and  shot  at  those  who  tried  to 
extinguish  the  flames.  Fortunately  nobody  was  hurt,  though 
the  whole  village  was  terrorized.  A  committee  of  citizens  r* 
ported  the  affair  to  General  Johnston,  who  offered  to  send  a 
guard  to  protect  the  settlement.  He  declared,  however,  that 

Banded  together  for  rapine  and  acts  of  violence,  they  have  stolen  large 
herds  of  horses  and  mules.  Many  of  these  men,  maddened  by  intem- 
perance, or  rendered  desperate  by  losses  at  the  gaming  table,  or  by 
various  other  causes,  have  shed  each  other's  blood  in  frequent  con- 
flicts, and  secret  assassinations.  These  lawless  and  bloody  deeds  are 
committed  by  them  almost  daily  with  impunity,  and  when  their  atro- 
city and  frequency  shock  the  public  mind,  it  has  become  the  custom 
with  a  certain  set  of  people  to  exclaim  against  the  people  of  Utah;  but 
it  is  an  injust'ce  to  impute  the  acts  of  these  desperadoes  to  the  com- 
munity in  general.  With  an  equal  show  of  justice  might  they  be  at- 
tributed to  the  inhabitants  of  the  States  and  Territories  whence  these 
men  have  so  recently  emigrated." 

*The  Salt  Lake  House,  Utah's  principal  hotel  at  that  time,  stood 
on  the  east  side  of  Main  Street,  about  midway  between  First  and 
Second  South  streets. 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES.  163 

he  could  not  control  the  soldiers  while  Spencer  was  at  large.* 
New  Federal  Officers. — Soon  after  Governor  Gumming 
was  installed,  the  Federal  Judges  who  had  come  with,  or  im- 
mediately followed,  the  troops,  were  assigned  to  their  respec- 
tive districts,  and  the  machinery  of  the  courts  was  set  in  mo- 
tion. Chief  Justice  D.  R.  Eckels,  having  qualified  by  taking 
the  oath  of  office  before  Probate  Judge  Elias  Smith,  July  19, 
1858,  took  up  his  residence  at  Camp  Floyd.  In  the  autumn  of 
that  year  Associate  Justice  Charles  E.  Sinclair  opened  court 
at  Salt  Lake  City.  The  other  Judge,  John  Cradlebaugh,  had 
not  then  arrived.  The  remaining  Federal  officers  were  John 
Hartnett,  Secretary;  Alexander  Wilson,  United  States  Attor- 
ney; Peter  K.  Dotson,  United  States  Marshal;  and  Jacob 
Forney,  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs.  The  last-named 
office  had  been  separated  from  that  of  Governor.  All  the  new 
appointees  were  "Gentiles,"  and,  with  the  single  exception  of 
Marshal  Dotson,  non-residents  of  Utah. 

Judge  Sinclair  and  Attorney  Wilson. — The  first  move  on 
the  judicial  chessboard  was  not  reassuring  to  the  people  who 
had  abandoned  their  exodus  and  returned  to  their  homes, 
relying  upon  the  promises  made  to  them  that  the  amnesty 
extended  by  President  Buchanan  would  be  held  sacred.  In 
charging  the  Grand  Jury  of  his  court,  Judge  Sinclair  urged 
them  to  indict  Ex-Governor  Young,  General  Wells,  and  other 
leading  citizens  for  treason.  He  held  that  the  President's  par- 
don, while  "a  public  act  in  the  history  of  the  country,"  "ought 
to  be  brought  judicially  by  plea,  motion,  or  otherwise. "f 

The  United  States  Attorney,  Mr.  Wilson,  refused  to  re- 
open the  wound  that  was  then  healing.  He  would  not  pre- 
sent bills  for  indictments  for  treason,  taking  the  ground  that 
the  Echo  Canyon  incident  was  closed;  the  President's  pardon 
having  been  presented  by  the  Commissioners,  and  accepted  by 
the  people,  whereupon  Governor  Cumming  had  proclaimed 
peace.  Mr.  Wilson  was  commended  by  the  Authorities  at 
Washington  for  his  stand  upon  this  question. 

*Pike  had  reported  that  Spencer  assaulted  him  with  a  pitch- 
fork, whereupon  he  "broke  his  head  in  self-defense."  Spencer's  friends 
denied  the  truth  of  this  statement,  affirming  that  the  pitchfork,  which 
was  in  Spencer's  hands  when  Pike  struck  him,  was  interposed  in  an 
attempt  to  break  the  force  of  the  blow  from  the  Sergeant's  gun 
barrel. 

Many  years  later,  Howard  Spencer  surrendered  to  the  law,  and 
was  tried  for  murder  in  the  District  Court  at  Salt  Lake  City.  -A 
mixed  jury  of  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles"  pronounced  him  not  guilty. 

tSays'Mr.  Stenhouse,  whom  I  also  quote  above:  "He  [Sinclair] 
wanted  to  bring  before  his  court  Brigham  Young  and  the  leading 
Mormons,  to  make  them  admit  that  they  had  been  guilty  of  treason 
and  humbly  accept  from  him  the  President's  clemency."  (Rocky 
Mountain  Saints,  page  402.) 


164      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Judge  Eckels,  while  at  Camp  Scott,  had  called  the  atten- 
tion of  his  Grand  Jury  to  the  existence  of  polygamy  in  Utah, 
and  had  expressed  the  belief  that  legal  indictments  might  be 
found  upon  that  score.  Polygamy,  he  said,  was  prohibited 
by  the  law  of  Mexico,  and  that  law  was  not  changed,  so  far  as 
he  could  learn,  by  the  cession  of  this  region  to  the  United 
States.*  Moreover,  he  held  that  polygamy  might  be  punished 
as  adultery  under  the  law  of  the  Territory.!  Judge  Sinclair 
also  mentioned  the  subject  of  polygamy  to  the  Grand  Jury  of 
his  court,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  been  as  confident  as  the 
Chief  Justice  that  it  could  be  punished  in  the  manner  sug- 
gested. At  all  events  he  did  not  demand  any  polygamy  in- 
dictments, nor  were  any  returned  by  the  Grand  Jury. 

General  Ferguson's  Case. — General  James  Ferguson  was 
indicted  on  a  charge  of  intimidation,  he  being  one  of  the  attor- 
neys accused  of  threatening  Judge  Stiles  in  the  District  Court 
at  Salt  Lake  City;  an  act  cited  to  sustain  the  theory  of  an 
insurrection  and  justify  the  sending  of  troops  to  Utah.  The 
other  accused  attorneys  were  Jesse  C.  Little  and  Hosea  Stout. 
The  charges  against  them  were  dismissed.  General  Ferguson 
was  tried  before  a  jury  of  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles"  and 
acquitted.  An  outgrowth  of  the  same  incident  was  an  effort 
by  D.  H.  Burr,  a  "Gentile"  lawyer,  to  have  General  Ferguson 
disbarred ;  but  nothing  came  of  it,  the  case  being  taken  out  of 
court  by  the  prosecuting  witness. 

Sentenced  to  Die  on  Sunday. — Judge  Sinclair's  course  in 

Utah  was  unsatisfactory  to  all  parties.  According  to  Mr. 
Stenhouse,  it  was  "only  memorable  for  one  thing — he  sen- 
tenced the  first  white  man  that  was  ever  hanged  in  Utah  to  be 
executed  on  a  Sunday!  Of  course  the  day  had  to  be  changed." 
The  man  sentenced  was  Thomas  H.  Ferguson,  who  had  shot 
and  killed  his  employer,  Alexander  Carpenter.  Both  were 


*Says  B.  H.  Roberts  upon  this  point:  "It  is  quite  evident,  how- 
ever, that  neither  the  jurists  nor  the  legislators  of  the  United  States 
regarded  this  reasoning  as  sound,  *  *  *  since  before  attempting 
any  action  against  the  plural  marriage  relations  countenanced  by  the 
"Mormon"  Church,  they  considered  special  enactments  of  Congress 
for  the  Territories  necessary;  and  at  no  time  invoked  either  the  old 
Spanish  law  or  the  common  law  against  this  institution  of  marriage. 
Besides,  had  either  the  common  or  old  Spanish  law  been  invoked 
against  the .  plural  marriage  features  of  the  "Mormon"  system,  the 
question  would  still  remain  as  to  whether  the  'bigamy'  or  'polygamy' 
of  those  laws  described  the  'plural  wife  system'."  (History  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  "Americana"  for  October,  1913,  pp.  943-944.  Note.) 

tAttempts  were  made  in  after  years,  and  under  the  local  laws,  to 
punish  polygamy  or  plural  marriage  as  adultery;  but  those  attempts 
were  unsuccessful. 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES.  165 

non-"Mormons."  The  killing  took  place  September  17,  and 
the  execution  October  28,  1859.* 

Judge  Cradlebaugh. — What  threatened  to  be  a  serious 
clash  between  the  civil  and  the  military  powers  arrayed  Gov- 
ernor Gumming,  with  the  citizens,  on  one  hand,  and  the  Fed- 
eral Judges,  with  General  Johnston  and  the  troops,  on  the 
other.  It  occurred  in  the  spring  of  1859.  Judge  Cradlebaugh 
had  arrived  in  Utah  during  the  previous  November,  but  did 
not  begin  judicial  proceedings  until  March.  The  seat  of  his 
district  was  Fillmore,  but  he  opened  court  at  Provo,  and  sum- 
moned to  his  assistance  several  companies  of  soldiers  from 
Camp  Floyd. 

Judge  Cradlebaugh  proposed  to  investigate  the  Mountain 
Meadows  Massacre ;  also  what  are  known  as  "the  Springville 
murders" — the  killing,  in  March,  1857,  of  William  R.  Parrish, 
his  son  Reason,  and  G.  G.  Potter,  by  persons  unknown.  Ex- 
pecting opposition,  the  Judge  deemed  the  presence  of  the 
troops  necessary  for  his  protection  and  that  of  jurors  and 
witnesses.  His  evident  purpose  was  to  fasten  guilty  respon- 
sibility upon  the  "Mormon"  Church.  In  charging  the  Grand 
Jury,  he  virtually  accused  the  Church  authorities  of  directing 
those  crimes,  and  the  Utah  Legislature  with  having  enacted 
laws  to  prevent  the  judiciary  from  bringing  such  offenders  to 
justice. T 

Military  Versus  Civil  Authority. — In  response  to  the  ju- 
dicial summons,  which  was  promptly  honored  by  the  post  com- 
mander, a  company  of  infantry  under  Captain  Heth  sur- 
rounded and  took  possession  of  the  Provo  Seminary,  in  which 
building  the  court  was  held.  Subsequently  eight  additional 
companies  of  infantry,  one  of  artillery,  and  one  of  cav- 
alrv.  under  Major  Paul,  were  stationed  within  sight  of  that 
building.  Against  this  action,  Mayor  Bullock  and  the  City 
Council,  with  other  citizens,  protested,  but  their  protest  was 
unheeded  by  Judge  Cradlebaugh.  They  therefore  appealed 
to  Governor  Gumming,  who  requested  General  Johnston  to 
withdraw  the  troops.  The  commander  refused  to  comply  with 
this  request,  and  the  Governor  then  issued  a  proclamation, 

*The  condemned  man,  in  his  speech  from  the  scaffold,  declared 
that  the  Judge  was  drunk  when  he  sentenced  him  to  die  on  the  Sab- 
bath clay.  This  may  or  may  not  have  been  the  case.  It  is  a  fact, 
however,  that  Judge  Sinclair  was  notoriously  intemperate,  often  under 
the  influence  of  liquor  even  while  on  the  bench. 

tSaid  Judge  Cradlebaugh:  "They  have  provided  the  probate 
courts  with  criminal  jurisdiction,  and  it  would  seem  that  the  whole 
machinery  was  made  so  that  they  should  be  brought  before  that  court 
and  tried;  and  the  fact  that  there  is  no  additional  legislation  to  pro- 
vide for  bringing  them  before  this  court  proves  'that  it  was  done  to 
prevent." 


166     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

setting  forth  the  facts,  and  protesting  against  the  military 
movement.  It  had  been  made,  he  said,  without  consultation 
with  him,  and  was  in  opposition  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  his 
instructions  from  the  Government.  He  stated  that  it  had  a 
tendency  to  terrify  the  inhabitants  and  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Territory,  also  to  subvert  the  ends  of  justice  by  intimidating 
witnesses  and  jurors.* 

Judge  versus  Grand  Jury. — After  a  heated  wrangle  with 
the  Grand  Jury,  which  had  failed  to  find  the  indictments  that 
he  most  desired,  Judge  Cradlebaugh  summarily  dismissed 
that  body  and  adjourned  his  court.  He  caused  to  be  entered 
upon  the  docket  these  words :  "The  whole  community  pre- 
sents a  united  and  organized  opposition  to  the  administration 
of  justice."f 

The  Grand  Jury  protested  against  its  untimely  and  dis- 
honorable discharge.  In  their  published  protest  the  jurors 
stated  that  they  were  surrounded,  during  their  deliberations, 
by  a  detachment  of  the  army,  and  that  army  officers  were 
quartered  within  hearing  of  the  evidence  of  witnesses  who 
were  being  examined  in  the  jury  room.  They  had,  however, 
presented  indictments  for  offenses  against  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  but  these  had  been  treated  with  contempt  and 
the  prisoners  liberated  without  trial.  Witnesses  subpoenaed 
by  the  Grand  Jury  had  been  treacherously  arrested,  and  the 

*Governor  Gumming  annexed  to  his  proclamation  the  following 
extract  from  the  instructions  received  by  him  for  his  guidance  while 
Governor  of  Utah:  "It  is  your  duty  to  take  care  that  the  laws  are 
faithfully  executed,  and  to  maintain  the  peace  and  good  .order  of  the 
Territory,  and  also  to  support  by  your  power  and  authority  the  civil 
officers  in  the  performance  of  their  duties.  If  these  officers,  when  thus 
engaged,  are  forcibly  opposed,  or  have  just  reason  to  expect  opposi- 
tion, they  have  a  right  to  call  such  portions  of  the  posse  comitatus  to 
their  aid  as  they  may  deem  necessary.  If  circumstances  should  lead 
you  to  believe  that  the  ordinary  force  at  the  disposal  of  such  officers 
will  be  insufficient  to  overcome  any  resistance  that  may  be  reasonably 
anticipated,  then  you  are  authorized  to  call  for  such  number  of  the 
troops  as  the  occasion  may  require,  who  will  act  as  a  posse  com- 
itatus, and  while  thus  employed  they  will  be  under  the  direction  of  the 
proper  civil  officer,  and  act  in  conformity  with  the  instructions  you 
may  give  as  the  Chief  Executive  Magistrate  of  the  Territory." 

tFollowing  is  a  portion  of  Judge  Cradlebaugh's  address  to  the 
Grand  Jury:  "If  it  be  expected  that  this  court  is  to  .be  used  by  the 
community  as  a  means  of  protecting  it  against  the  peccadilloes  of 
Gentil'es  and  Indians,  unless  the  communitv  will  punish  its  own  mur- 
derers, such  expectation  will  not  be  realized.  When  this  people  come 
to  their  reason,  and  manifest  a  disposition  to  punish  their  own  high 
offenders,  it  will  then  be  time  to  enforce  the  law  also  for  their  protec- 
tion. If  this  court  cannot  bring  you  to  a  proper  sense  of  your  duty,  it 
can  at  least  turn  the  savages  in  custody  loose  upon  you."  Forthwith 
the  prisoners  were  set  free.  Two  of  them  were  Indians,  charged 
with  an  atrocious  crime. 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES.  167 

jury  deprived  of  their  evidence.  Yet  notwithstanding  they 
were  thus  trammeled  by  the  court,  they  had  honored  their 
oath,  and  were  endeavoring  to  faithfully  discharge  their  du- 
ties, when  they  "were  dismissed  by  his  honor  with  a  slander- 
ous and  insulting  harangue." 

Attempt  to  Arrest  President  Young. — The  next  exciting 
incident  was  the  attempted  arrest  of  President  Brigham 
Young,  who  had  been  accused  of  complicity  in  an  act  of  coun- 
terfeiting. The  real  criminals  were  men  from  Camp  Floyd, 
who  had  employed  a  young  engraver  at  Salt  Lake  City  to 
duplicate  certain  plates  used  by  the  post  quartermaster  for 
notes  drawn  upon  the  Assistant  United  States  Treasurers  in 
St.  Louis  and  New  York.  The  fraud  being  discovered,  the 
principal  offender,  one  Brewer,  turned  state's  evidence,  shift- 
ing the  blame  from  his  own  shoulders  to  those  of  the  en- 
graver, who  was  comparatively  innocent.  The  militarv  author- 
ities were  confident  that  they  also  had  a  case  against  President 
Younof,  and  some  of  them  were  jubilant  at  the  prospect. 

Governor  Gumming  Interposes. — The  necessary  writs 
having  been  issued,  officers  from  Camp  Floyd  called  upon 
Governor  Cumming  to  solicit  his  co-operation.  To  the  arn^f 
of  the  maker  of  the  plates  the  Governor  offered  no  objection 
—he  even  helped  to  procure  it,  and  due  punishment  followed  • 
but  he  refused  to  encourage  or  permit  the  arrest  of  President 
Young,  the  charge  against  him  being  absolutely  groundless.* 

It  was  now  rumored  that  General  Johnston  would  send 
two  regiments,  with  artillery,  to  enforce  the  writ  of  arrest 
against  the  "Mormon"  leader.  A  breach  was  to  be  made  in  the 
stone  wall  surrounding  his  premises,  and  he  would  then  be 
taken  bv  force  and  carried  to  Camp  Floyd.  Governor  Cum- 
ming informed  General  Wells  of  this  report,  and  directed  him 
to  hold  the  militia  in  readiness  to  repel  any  such  assault.  But 
the  regiments  did  not  come. 

Judge  Cradlebaugh  and  Superintendent  Forney. — Judge 
Cradlebaugh,  after  adjourning  court  in  the  summary  manner 
described,  visited  Southern  Utah,  accompanied  bv  a  United 
States  deputy  marshal  and  a  detachment  of  Camp  Flovd 
troops  under  Captain  Campbell.  They  collected  all  the  infor- 

*Tt  transpired  thnt  someone  in  the  President's  Office  had  fur- 
nished the  paper  for  the  counterfeit  notes,  and  the.  young  engraver, 
who  was  a  "Mormon."  had  previously  done  work  on  the  plates  for  the 
Deseret  Currency.  This  was  the  extent  of  the  so-called  "complicity." 
U.  S.  Marshal  Dotson  seized  the  Deseret  Currency  plates,  mistaking 
them  for  counterfeiting1  accessories.  Discovering  his  error,  he  re- 
turned the  plates,  thouerh  in  a  ruined  condition,  and  subsequent  legal 
proceedings  compelled  him  to  pay  damages  in  the  sum  of  $2,600.  The 
voting  engraver,  pardoned  out  of  the  Penitentiary,  redeemed  himself 
by  a  career  of  strict  probity. 


168      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

mation  possible  respecting  the  Mountain  Meadows  tragedy, 
which  the  Judge  was  still  determined  to  place  to  the  account 
of  the  leaders  of  the  "Mormon"  Church.  His  zeal  in  that  di- 
rection, and  that  of  the  military  authorities  in  the  counterfeit- 
ing complicity  case,  caused  Superintendent  Forney  to  remark 
in  a  report  to  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Indian  Af- 
fairs :  "I  fear,  and  I  regret  to  say,  that  with  certain  parties 
here  there  is  a  greater  anxiety  to  connect  Brigham  Young  and 
other  Church  dignitaries  with  every  criminal  offense,  than 
diligent  endeavor  to  punish  the  actual  perpetrators  of  crime." 
Mr.  Forney  had  also  been  through  Southern  Utah,  and  had 
gathered  up  the  survivors  of  the  Massacre — seventeen  small 
children — that  they  might  be  returned  to  their  friends  in 
Arkansas.  The  report  above  cited  was  made  in  August,  1859.* 
Attorney-General  Black  to  the  Utah  Judges. — Meanwhile 
an  important  message  had  arrived  from  Washington.  It  was 

*Many  years  later,  when  the  War  Department  was  being  urged 
by  Federal  officers  in  Utah  (Judge  Hawley  and  Governor  Woods)  to 
establish  a  military  post  near  Beaver,  the  seat  of  the  Second  District 
Court,  President  Young  wrote  to  Secretary  Belknap  as  follows: 

"In  1858,  when  Alfred  Gumming  was  Governor  of  Utah  Territory, 
I  pledged  myself  to  lend  him  and  the  court  every  assistance  in  my 
power,  in  men  and  means,  to  thoroughly  investigate  the  Mountain 
Meadows  Massacre,  and  bring,  if  possible,  the  guilty  parties  to  jus- 
tice. That  offer  I  have  made  again  and  again,  and  although  it  has  not 
yet  been  accepted  I  have  neither  doubt  nor  fear  that  the  perpetrators 
of  that  tragedy  will  meet  their  just  reward.  But  sending  an  armed 
force  is  not  the  means  of  furthering  the  ends  of  justice,  although  it 
may  serve  an  excellent  purpose  in  exciting  popular  clamor  against  the 
Mormons. 

"In  1859,  Judge  Cradlebaugh  employed  a  military  force  to  at- 
tempt the  arrest  of  those  alleged  criminals.  He  engaged  in  all  about 
four  hundred  men,  some  of  whom  were  civilians,  reputed  gamblers, 
thieves,  and  other  camp  followers,  who  were  doubtless  intended  for 
jurors  (as  his  associate,  Judge  Eckels,  had  just  done  in  another  dis- 
trict); but  these  accomplished  absolutely  nothing  further  than  plun- 
dering hen  roosts,  and  rendering  themselves  obnoxious  to  the  citizens 
on  their  line  of  march.  Had  Judge  Cradlebaugh,  instead  of  peremp- 
torily dismissing  his  grand  jury  and  calling  for  that  military  posse, 
allowed  the  investigation  into  the  Mountain  Meadows  Massacre  to  pro- 
ceed, I  have  the  authority  of  Mr.  Wilson,  U.  S.  Prosecuting  Attorney, 
for  saying  the  investigation  was  proceeding  satisfactorily;  and  I  firmly 
believe,  if  the  county  sheriffs,  whose  legal  duty  it  was  to  make  arrests, 
had  been  lawfully  directed  to  serve  the  processes,  that  they  would 
have  performed  their  duty  and  the  accused  would  have  been  brought 
to  trial.  Instead  of  honoring  the  law,  Judge  Cradlebaugh  took  a 
course  to  screen  offenders,  who  could  easily  hide  from  such  a  posse 
under  the  justification  of  avoiding  a  trial  by  court  martial. 

"It  is  now  fourteen  years  since  the  tragedy  was  enacted,  and  the 
courts  have  never  tried  to  prosecute  the  accused;  although  some  of 
the  judges,  like  Judge  Hawley,  have  used  every  opportunity  to  charge 
the  crime  on  prominent  men  in  Utah,  and  influence  public  opinion 
against  our  community." 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES.  169 

from  Honorable  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  Attorney-General  of  the 
United  States,  and  was  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  Judges  Sin- 
clair and  Cradlebaugh,  who  had  laid  before  the  Attorney- 
General  the  matters  in  controversy  between  them  and  Gover- 
nor Gumming,  requesting  instructions  from  the  Department  of 
Justice.  Part  of  Judge  Black's  epistle,  dated  May  17,  1859, 
ran  as  follows : 

"The  condition  of  things  in  Utah  made  it  extremely  desirable  that 
the  Judges  appointed  for  that  Territory  should  confine  themselves 
strictly  within  their  own  official  sphere.  The  Government  had  a  Dis- 
trict Attorney,  who  was  charged  with  the  duties  of  a  miblic  accuser, 
and  a  Marshal,  who  was  responsible  for  the  arrest  and  safe-keeping  of 
criminals.  For  the  Judges  there  was  nothing  left,  except  to  hear  pa- 
tiently the  cases  brought  before  them,  and  to  determine  them  impar- 
tially, according  to  the  evidence  adduced  on  both  sides.  *  *  *  * 

"The  Governor  is  the  Supreme  Executive  of  the  Territory.  He 
is  responsible  for  the  public  peace.  From  the  general  law  of  the  land, 
the  nature  of  his  office,  and  the  instructions  he  received  from  the  State 
Department,  it  ought  to  have  been  understood  that  he  alone  had 
power  to  issue  a  requisition  for  the  movement  of  troops  from  one  part 
of  the  Territory  to  another, — that  he  alone  could  put  the  military 
forces  of  the  Union  and  the  people  of  the  Territory  into  relations  of 
general  hostility  with  one  another.  The  instructions  given  to  the 
Commanding  General  by  the  War  Department  are  to  the  same  effect. 

"On  the  whole  the  President  is  very  decidedly  of  opinion — (1) 
That  the  Governor  of  the  Territory  alone  has  power  to  issue  a  requisi- 
tion upon  the  Commanding-general  for  the  whole  or  part  of  the  army; 
(2")  That  there  was  no  apparent  occasion  for  the  presence  of  troops 
at  Provo:  (3)  That  if  a  rescue  of  the  prisoners  in  custody  had  been 
attempted,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Marshal,  and  not  of  the  Judge,  to 
summon  the  force  which  might  be  necessary  to  prevent  it;  (4)  That 
the  troops  ought  not  to  have  been  sent  to  Provo  without  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Governor,  nor  kept  there  against  his  remonstrance;  (5) 
That  the  disregard  of  these  principles  and  rules  of  action  has  been  in 
many  ways  extremely  unfortunate."* 

This  put  a  stop  to  the  judicial-military  operations  of  the 
Federal  Judges.  Thenceforth  they  confined  themeslves  to 
their  proper"  sphere,  leaving  the  duties  of  Prosecuting  Attor- 
ney and  Marshal  to  be  discharged  by  those  functionaries,  with- 
out magisterial  interference.  Judges  Eckels  and  Sinclair, 

*Chief  Justice  Eckels  and  General  Johnston  had  also  sent  com- 
munications to  Washington,  the  former  addressing  the  Secretary  of 
State  and  the  latter  the  head  of  the  War  Department,  relative  to 
affairs  in  Utah.  Secretary  Cass,  after  perusing  the  letter  from  Judge 
Eckels,  wrote  to  Governor  dimming  for  a  statement  of  facts,  which 
was  furnished.  It  did  not  altogether  agree  with  the  representations  of 
the  Chief  Justice.  Secretary  Floyd's  reply  to  General  Johnston  sup- 
ported the  views  of  the  Administration  already  expressed  by  Judge 
Black.  The  latter,  answering  letters  from  U.  S.  Attorney  Wilson, 
approved  the  course  that  he  had  taken  and  urged  him  not  to  allow 
the  Judges  to  usurp  his  functions.  "If  they  will  insist  upon  doing  the 
duties  of  Prosecuting  Attorney  and  Marshal,  as  well  as  their  own, 
everything  will  be  thrown  into  confusion,"  remarked  the  Attorney 
General. 


170     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

whose  characters  were  not  such  as  to  render  consistent  any 
suggestion  they  might  make  for  the  correction  of  "Mormon" 
morals,  soon  dropped  out  of  sight.  Judge  Cradlebaugh  was 
next  heard  of  in  Carson  Valley,  having  been  appointed  to  the 
judicial  district  comprising  that  section,  which,  a  few  years 
later,  was  cut  off  from  Utah  and  converted  into  the  Territory 
of  Nevada,  with  Cradlebaugh  as  its  first  Delegate  in  Congress. 
Camp  Floyd  Indignant. — Camp  Floyd  seethed  with  indig- 
nation over  the  turn  affairs  had  taken.  At  a  mass  meeting 
held  there  in  July,  1859,  an  address  was  issued  embodying  a 
declaration  that  the  "Mormons"  were  still  disloyal,  and  that 
President  Buchanan  had  done  a  great  wrong  in  withdrawing 


THE  OVERLAND  STAGE  COACH. 

from  the  courts  the  protecting  power  of  the  military.  The  agi- 
tation developed  into  a  movement  to  have  Governor  Gumming 
put  out  of  office ;  and  the  movement  might  have  succeeded, 
through  General  Johnston's  influence  at  Washington,  but  for 
a  counter  influence  exerted  by  Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane.* 

Horace  Greeley  in  Utah. — In  the  summer  of  1859  Horace 

*About  that  time  Colonel  Kane  delivered  in  the  East  a  public 
address  upon  Utah  affairs,  in  the  course  of  which  he  eulogized  Gov- 
ernor Gumming  as  the  man  of  all  men  for  the  position  he  held.  The 
address,  widely  published,  made  such  an  impression  at  Washington 
that  the  tide  of  sentiment  was  turned  in  favor  of  Utah's  Executive. 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES.  171 

Greeley,  the  founder  and  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  ar- 
rived in  the  Territory.  From  the  frontier  the  famous  journal- 
ist had  traveled  westward  by  means  of  Ben  Holladay's  mail 
and  passenger  stage  line,  which  was  then  running  between 
St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  and  Sacramento,  California,  with  Salt 
Lake  City  as  a  station  on  the  route.  The  line  had  been  estab- 
lished soon  after  the  founding  of  Camp  Floyd.*  Mr.  Greeley 
reached  the  Utah  capital  on  the  evening  of  July  10th,  and  re- 
mained a  week  or  more,  studying  local  conditions.  During  his 
stay  he  had  several  extended  interviews  with  President  Brig- 
ham  Young.  The  New  York  editor  was  introduced  to  the 
"Mormon"  leader  by  Delegate  Bernhisel.t 

"Two  Hours  with  Brigham  Young." — In  his  book  enti- 
tled "An  Overland  Journey  from  New  York  to  San  Fran- 
cisco"— a  compilation  of  letters  written  by  him  to  his  paper — 


LION  HOUSE.  PRESIDENT'S  OFFICE.       BEE  HIVE  HOUSE. 

Mr.  Greeley,  under  date  of  July  13,  1859,  recounts  his  first  in- 
terview with  Brigham  Young.     Part  of  it  follows : 

"We  were  very  cordially  welcomed  at  the  door  by  the  President, 
who  led  us  into  the  second-story  parlor  of  the  largest  of  his  houses 
(he  has  threet),  where  I  was  introduced  to  Heber  C.  Kimball,  General 

*Later,  another  line  of  stage  coaches  ran  ftom^Salt  Lake  City 
through  Fillmore,  Parowan,  and  Cedar  City,  to  San  Diego. 

tDoctor  Bernhisel,  then  nearing  the  close  of  his^second  ^term  in 
Congress,  was  about  to  be  succeeded  by  Captain  William  H. 
Hooper,  elected  Delegate  in  August,  1859.  Hooper,  during  the  Echo 
Canyon  War  period,  had  acted  as  Secretary  of  Utah  pro  tern. 

$The  White  House,  the  Lion  House,  and  the  Bee-Hive  House,  all 
three  still  standing  (1916)  on  South  Temple  Street. 


172      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Wells,  General  Ferguson,  Albert  Carrington  Elias  Smith,  and  several 
other  leading  men  in  the  Church,  with  two  full-grown  sons  of  the 
President.  After  some  unimportant  conversation  on  general  topics,  I 
stated  that  I  had  come  in  quest  of  fuller  knowledge  respecting  the 
doctrines  and  polity  of  the  Mormon  Church,  and  would  like  to  ask 
some  questions  bearing  directly  on  these,  if  there  were  no  objections. 
President  Young  avowing  his  willingness  to  respond  to  all  pertinent 
inquiries,  the  conversation  proceeded  substantially  as  follows: 

"H.G. — Am  I  to  regard  Mormonism  (so-called)  as  a  new  religion, 
or  as  simply  a  new  development  of  Christianity? 

"B.  Y. — We  hold  that  there  can  be  no  true  Christian  church  with- 
out a  Priesthood  directly  commissioned  by  and  in  immediate  commu- 
nication with  the  Son  of  God  and  Savior  of  mankind.  Such  a  church 
is  that  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  called  by  their  enemies  Mormons;  we 
know  no  other  that  even  pretends  to  have  present  and  direct  revela- 
tions of  God's  will. 

"H.  G. — Am  I  to  infer  that  Utah,  if  admitted  as  a  member  of  the 
Federal  Union,  will  be  a  slave  State? 

"B.  Y. — No;  she  will  be  a  free  State.  Slavery  here  would  prove 
useless  and  unpiofitable.  I  regard  it  generally  as  a  curse  to  the  mas- 
ters. I  myself  hire  many  laborers,  and  pay  them  fair  wages;  I 
could  not  afford  to  own  them.  I  can  do  better  than  subject  myself  to 
an  obligation  to  feed  and  clothe  their  families,  to  provide  and  care  for 
them  in  sickness  and  health.  Utah  is  not  adapted  to  slave  labor.* 

"H.  G. — Let  me  now  be  enlightened  with  regard  more  especially 
to  your  church  polity.  I  understand  that  you  require  each  member  to 
pay  over  one-tenth  of  all  he  produces  or  earns  to  the  Church. 

"B.  Y. — That  is  a  requirement  of  our  faith.  There  is  no  compul- 
sion as,  to  the  payment.  Each  member  acts  in  the  premises  according 
to  his  pleasure,  under  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience. 

"H.  G. — What  is  done  with  the  proceeds  of  this  tithing? 

"B.  Y. — Part  of  it  is  devoted  to  building  temples  and  other  places 
of  worship;  part  to  helping  the  poor  and  needy  converts  on  their  way 
to  this  country;  and  the  largest  portion  to  the  support  of  the  poor 
among  the  Saints. 

"H.  G. — Is  none  of  it  paid  to  bishops  and  other  dignitaries  of  the 
Church? 

"B.  Y.— Not  one  penny.     *     * 

"H.  G. — How,  then,  do  your  ministers  live? 

"B.  Y. — By  the  labor  of  their  own  hands,  like  the  first  apostles. 
Every  bishop,  every  elder,  may  be  dailv  seen  at  work  in  the  field  or 
the  shop,  like  his  neighbors.  *  *  *  Even  our  lawyers  (pointing  to 
General  Ferguson  and  another  present,  who  are  the  regular  lawyers  of 
the  Church),  are  paid  nothing  for  their  services.  I  am  called 

rich,  and  consider  myself  worth  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars; but  no  dollar  of  it  was  ever  paid  me  by  the  Church. 

***** 

"H.  G. — What  do  you  say  of  the  so-called  Danites,  or  Destroying 
Angels,  belonging  to  your  Church? 

"B.  Y. — What  do  you  say?  I  know  of  no  such  band,  no  such  per- 
sons or  organization.  I  hear  of  them  only  in  the  slanders  of  our 


enemies. 

*  *  *  * 


"H.  G. — How  general  is  polygamy  among  you? 

*President  Young  acquiesced  in  the  divine  dispensation  that  made 
the  children  of  Ham  servants  to  the  descendants  of  Shem  and  Japh- 
eth;  but  he  believed  that  the  curse  pronounced  upon  Ham  would  yet 
be  removed  from  his  posterity. 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES. 


173 


"B.  Y. — I  could  not  say.  Some  of  those  present  (heads  of  the 
Church)  have  each  but  one  wife;  others  have  more;  each  determines 
what  is  his  individual  duty.* 

Honored  by  the  Press. — The  distinguished  visitor  was  the 
guest  of  honor  at  a  reception  an$  banquet  given  by  the  Deseret 
Typographical  and  Press  Associ- 
ation. Utah  had  at  that  time 
two  newspapers — -"The  Deseret 
News,"  representing  the  "Mor- 
mon" community,  and  "The  Val- 
ley Tan,"  which  voiced  the  views 
of  the  "Anti-Mormons."  This 
paper  was  established  in  Novem- 
ber, 1858;  its  first  editor  being 
Kirk  Anderson,  and  its  principal 
owner,  Secretary  Hartnett. 
Though  published  in  Salt  Lake 
City,  most  of  its  circulation  was 
at  Camp  Floyd,  where  the  earli- 
est numbers  had  been  issued.  A 
third  journal,  "The  Mountaineer,"  made  its  appearance  a  few 
weeks  after  Mr.  Greeley's  departure.  Its  editors  and  pro- 
prietors were  James  Ferguson,  Seth  M.  Blair,  and  *Hosea 
Stout.  All  three  papers  issued  weekly.  For  the  "News" 
and  the  "Mountaineer"  the  terms  of  subscription  were  six 
dollars  a  year;  for  the  "Valley  Tan,"  ten  dollars. 


HORACE    GREELEY 


*The  chapter  in  which  this  dialogue  occurs  is  entitled  "Two 
Hours  with  Brigham  Young."  Says  Mr.  Greeley: 

"He  [Youngl  spoke  readily,  not  always  with  grammatical  ac- 
curacy, but  with  no  appearance  of  hesitation  or  reserve,  and  with  no 
apparent  desire  to  conceal  anything;  nor  did  he  repel  any  of  my  ques- 
tions as  impertinent.  He  was  very  plainly  dressed  in  thin  summer 
clothing,  and  with  no  air  of  sanctimony  or  fanaticism.  In  appearance 
he  is  a  portly,  frank,  good-natured,  rather  thick-set  man  of  fifty-five, 
seeming  to  enjoy  life,  and  to  be  in  no  particular  hurry  to  get  to 
heaven.  His  associates  are  olain  men,  evidently  born  and  reared  to  a 
life  of  labor,  and  looking  as  little  like  crafty  hyprocrites  or  swindlers 
as  any  body  of  men  I  ever  met.  The  absence  of  cant  or  snuffle  from 
their  manner  was  marked  and  general."  In  another  chapter  Greeley 
tells  of  "opportunities  for  studying  the  'Mormons'  in  their  social,  or 
festive,  and  in  their  devotional  assemblies,"  and  goes  on  to  say:  "I 
had  been  told  that  the  Mormons  are  remarkably  ignorant,  supersti- 
tious, and  brutalized;  but  the  aspect  of  these  congregations  did  not 
sustain  that  assertion.  Nor  do  I  accept  the  current  Gentile  presump- 
tion, that  the  Mormons  are  an  organized  banditti — a  horde  of  robbers 
and  assassins."  "I  conclude  that  polygamy,  as  it  was  a  graft  on  the 
original  stock  of  Mormonism,  will  be  outlived  by  the  root — that  there 
will  be  a  new  revelation,  ere  many  years,  whereby  the  Saints  will  be 
admonished  to  love  and  cherish  the  wives  they  already  have,  but  not 
to  marry  any  more  beyond  the  natural  assignment  of  one  wife  to  each 
husband." 


174     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH.  . 

By  Way  of  Camp  Floyd.— Greeley's  further  route  west- 
ward was  by  way  of  Camp  Floyd,  which  he  describes  as  "on 
the  west  side  of  a  dry  valley,  perhaps  ten  miles  wide  by  thirty 
miles  long,  separated  by  high  hills  from  Lake  Utah,  some 
fifteen  to  twenty  miles  distant  on  the  northeast."  The  camp 
was  "formed  of  low  and  neat  adobe  houses,  generally  small." 
The  lumber  for  roofs  and  finishings  had  been  "supplied  by 
Brigham  Young  and  his  son-in-law,  from  the  only  canyon 
opening  into  Salt  Lake  Valley  which  abounds  in  timber  fit 
for  sawing."  The  profit  on  the  lumber  was  "probably  over 
$50,000,  the  price  being  seventy  dollars  per  thousand  feet, 
delivered."  The  total  cost  of  the  military  post  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, was  about  $200,000.* 

The  Pony  Express. — The  news  service  between  the  Mis- 
souri frontier  and  the  Pacific  Coast  was  greatly  improved  in 
the  spring  of  1860,  by  the  establishment  of  the  Pony  Express. 
William  H.  Russell  of  St.  Louis,  and  associates,  originated 
this  enterprise,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  supply  to  the 
Great  West,  as  far  as  possible,  the  need  -of  the  electric  tele- 
graph. The  Pony  Express  was  carried  on  by  means  of 
picked  riders  with  relays  of  swift  saddle  horses,  capable  of 
making  250  miles  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  ordinary  mail 
coach  could  make  but  100  or  125  miles  in  that  time.  This 

*Greeley's  opinion  of  the  policy  that  kept  the  Federal  troops  in 
Utah  is  thus  set  forth  in  the  "Overland  Journey":  "Very  general  is 
the  inquiry  in  the  army,  Why  were  we  sent  here?  And  why  are  we 
kept  here?"  "What  purpose  does  it  subserve,  beyond  enriching  con- 
tractors and  Mormon  magnates,  at  its  own  cost  and  that  of  the  Fed- 
eral Treasury?  Every  article  eaten,  drank,  worn,  or  in  any  manner 
bought  by  the  soldiers,  costs  three  to  ten  times  its  value  in  the  States 
*  *  *  I  have  not  so  bad  an  opinion  of  the  Mormons  as  that  enter- 
tained by  the  army.  While  I  consider  the  Mormon  religion,  so-called, 
a  delusion  and  a  blight,  I  believe  many  of  its  devoted  adherents,  in- 
cluding most  of  those  I  have  met,  to  be  pure-minded,  well-meaning 
people;  and  I  do  not  believe  that  Mormons  generally  delight  in  plun- 
der or  murder.  *  *  *  But  I  concur  entirely  in  the  conviction  of 
the  army,  that  there  is  no  use  in  its  retention  here  under  existing 
orders  and  circumstances,  and  that  three  or  four  companies  of  dra- 
goons would  answer  every  purpose  of  this  large  and  costly  concentra- 
tion of  troops.  The  army  would  cost  less  almost  anywhere  else,  and 
could  not  anywhere  be  less  useful.  A  suspicion  that  it  is  kept  here 
to  answer  pecuniary  ends  is  widely  entertained.  It  is  known  that  vast 
sums  have  been  made  out  of  its  transportation  by  favored  con- 
tractors." 

General  Winfield  Scott  seems  to  have  been  of  the  same  opinion. 
In  his  Autobiography  (p.  604)  he  claims  to  have  opposed  the  sending 
of  the  army  to  Utah  on  "the  general  ground  of  inexpediency,"  and 
especially  because  it  was  too  late,  when  it  was  concluded  to  send 
them,  for  the  troops  "to  reach  their  destination  in  comfort  or  even  in 
safety."  Scott  believed  that  the  Utah  Expedition  was  set  on  foot  "to 
give  occasion  for  large  contracts  and  expenditures,"  to  "open  a  wide 
field  for  fraud  and  peculation." 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES. 


175 


innovation  brought  the  Utah  capital  into  a  six-days  commu- 
nication with  the  frontier,  and  within  seven  days  of  New  York 
and  Washington.  The  first  pony  rider  from  the  West 
reached  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  7th  of  April.  The  first  from  the 
East  arrived  two  days  later.  Both  expresses  had  started  on 


THE  PONY   EXPRESS. 

the  night  of  April  3rd,  one  from  Sacramento  and  the  other 
from  St.  Joseph.* 

Burton's  "City  of  the  Saints." — Late  in  the  summer  of 
that  year  came  another  notable  visitor  to  receive  and  record 
impressions  concerning  the  people  of  Utah  and  their  institu- 
tions. It  was  Captain  Richard  F.  Burton,  a  British  army 
officer  and  world-wide  traveler,  whose  book,  "The  City  of 

*The  Ponv  Express  carried  dispatches  and  important  letters,  the 
rate  for  which  was  from  one  dollar  to  five  dollars  per  half  ounce. 
Written  on  the  thinnest  paper  procurable,  the  messages  were  stowed 
in  saddle  bags,  or  in  pouches  on  the  person  of  the  rider.  The  relays 
were  kept  at  the  stations  of  the  Overland  Stage  Line.  A  horseman 
coming  in  at  full  gallop  would  jump  from  his  jaded  steed,  leave  it  in 
the  care  of  grooms  waiting  to  receive  it,  and,  flinging  himself  across  a 
fresh  mount,  be  off  again  with  almost  the  speed  of  the  wind.  No  one 
rider,  of  course,  could  make  the  through  trip  without  sleep,  and  at  cer- 
tain points  fresh  riders  were  supplied.  Eighty  riders  and  four  hundred 
horses  constituted  the  entire  equipment;  eight  messengers  being  kept 
in  the  saddle.  While  the  Pony  Express  did  not  originate  in  Utah,  the 
Territory  furnished  a  full  share  of  the  riders.  To  secure  the  full  ad- 
vantages of  the  service,  clubs  were  organized  along  the  route — one  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  with  Brigham  Young  as  its  president.  Among  the 
most  noted  of  the  express  riders  was  Colonel  William  F.  Cody — 
"Buffalo  Bill." 


176     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

the  Saints,"  published  after  his  visit  to  the  Territory,  is  one 
of  the  fairest  productions  of  its  kind  that  has  appeared  in 
print.  Captain  Burton  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  24th 
of  August,  and  remained  in  Utah  one  month,  spending  part  of 
the  time  at  Camp  Floyd.  Like  Editor  Greeley,  this  noted 
traveler  had  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains  for  the  purpose  of 
visiting  the  Great  Basin  and  the  Pacific  Coast.* 

Rumors  of  War. — News  of  a  stirring  nature  soon  came 
by  the  Pony  Express.  The  air  was  filled  with  rumors  of  war. 
Events  in  the  East  had  been  hurrying  to  a  crisis,  and  the 
great  conflict  that  was  destined  to  split  the  Nation  asunder, 
was  just  about  to  begin.  The  immediate  result  to  Utah  was 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Federal  troops  from  the  Territory. 

Camp  Floyd  Abandoned. — As  early  as  February,  1860, 
General  Johnston  had  set  out  for  Washington,  going  by  way 
of  Southern  California  and  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  Colonel 
Smith,  and  after  him,  Colonel  Cooke,  succeeded  to  the  posi- 
tion of  post  commander.  By  Cooke's  order,  in  February, 
1861,  the  name  Camp  Floyd  was  changed  to  Fort  Critten- 
den;  Secretary  Floyd  having  manifested  by  that  time  his 
strong  anti-Union  tendencies. y  Many  of  the  troops  had  al- 
ready been  ordered  to  Oregon  and  New  Mexico;  in  July  the 
remainder  took  up  their  march  for  the  East.J 

*Burton  divided  the  inhabitants  of  Great  Salt  Lake  City  into 
three  classes — -"Mormons,"  "Gentiles,"  and  "Anti-Mormons,"  and  at- 
tributed to  them  "three  distinct  opinions  concerning,  three  several 
reasons  for,  and  three  diametrically  different  accounts  of,  everything 
that  happens." 

tMany  believed  that  Johnston's  army  would  never  have  been  sent 
to  Utah,  but  for  the  plotting  of  Secessionist  leaders  at  Washington. 
President  Buchanan  denied  the  right  of  a  State  to  secede:  but  the 
Secretary  of  War,  John  B.  Floyd,  was  a  strong  Secessionist  and  be- 
came a  Confederate  general.  As  a  member  of  the  President's  Cabinet, 
he  is  said  to  have  done  all  in  his  power  to  scatter  the  armed  forces  of 
the  Union  in  order* to  facilitate  the  withdrawal  of  the  Southern  States 
and  enable  them  to  seize  the  Government  arsenals  and  public  military 
stores  within  their  borders.  (Elaine's  "Twenty  Years  in  Congress," 
Bancroft's  "History  of  Utah,"  p.  504;  "Library  of  Universal  Knowl- 
edge," Vol.  6,  p.  73.) 

ISome  of  these  departing  soldiers — these  ordered  to  New  Mexico 
— were  guilty  of  a  dastardly  outrage.  They  went  by  way  of  Provo 
River,  Echo  Canyon,  Fort  Bridger  and  Fort  Laramie,  marching  in 
two  sub-columns  under  Colonel  Morrison  and  Major  Lynde;  a  large 
contingent  of  camp  followers,  including  women  and  gamblers,  going 
with  them.  On  Yellow  Creek,  near  the  head  of  Echo  Canyon,  Wil- 
liam and  James  Hennifer  having  entered  the  camp,  were  set  upon  and 
shamefully  treated.  The  former  was  stripped  of  his  clothing  and 
whipped  and  beaten  nearly  to  death  at  the  instance  of  Assistant  Sur- 
geon Edward  Covey  and  Lieutenant  Ebenezer  N.  Gay.  It  was  an  act 
of  revenge.  Covey  had  been  arrested  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  November. 
1858,  for  riot  and  assault,  and  Hennifer  was  one  of  the  officers  who 
had  taken  him  into  custody. 


CAMP  FLOYD  TIMES.  177 

Before  the  post  was  abandoned,  immense  stores  of  pro- 
visions and  army  supplies  were  offered  for  sale  by  the  mili- 
tary authorities,  and  disposed  of  at  an  enormous  sacrifice. 
Goods  worth  four  million  dollars,  were  sold  for  one  hundred 
thousand.  Far-sighted  buyers  made  their  fortunes.  Great 
quantities  of  arms  and  ammunition,  which  could  not  be  trans- 
ported, were  destroyed  by  direction  of  the  War  Department. 

Farewell-  Courtesies. — General  Johnston  did  not  visit 
Salt  Lake  City  after  passing  through  with  his  army  in  the 
summer  of  1858.  Consequently  he  and  Brigham  Young  never 
met.  Colonel  Cooke,  Colonel  Alexander,  Captain  Marcy, 
and  Quartermaster  Grossman  accepted  an  invitation  to  call 
upon  the  Ex-Governor  prior  to  their  departure;  an  invitation 
extended  by  Hiram  B.  Clawson,  the  President's  son-in-law, 
and  purchasing  agent  at  the  post.  These  officers  pre- 
sented to  the  "Mormon"  leader  the  flag-staff  from  which  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  had  floated  over  Camp  Floyd ;  and  for  many 
years  this  interesting  relic  stood  near  the  White  House,  on 
the  hill  east  of  the  Eagle  Gate,  where  it  continued  to  hold 
aloft  the  National  Banner."* 

Governor  Cumming's  Departure. — One  departure  during 
that  period  must  have  caused  general  regret.  It  was 
that  of  Governor  Gumming,  whose  brave  and  kindly  nature, 
coupled  with  a  straightforward,  independent  course,  had  won 
the  confidence  and  lasting  friendship  of  the  people  he  had 
faithfully  served.  His  term  of  office  ended  in  July,  1861,  but  as 
early  as  the  17th  of  May  he  bade  Utah  farewell,  leaving  the 
Executive  office  in  charge  of  Secretary  Francis  H.  Wootten. 
The  Governor's  destination  was  his  old  home  in  Georgia. 

*General  Johnston  passed  to  a  tragic  ending.  He  had  termed  the 
people  of  Utah  "rebels."  Himself  a  "rebel"  no^,  wearing  the  gray  in- 
stead of  the  blue,  commanding  a  Confederate  in  lieu  of  a  Union  army, 
he  met  Grant  at  Shiloh,  April  6,  1862,  and  fell  at  the  crisis  of  that  ter- 
rible battle,  which,  but  for  his  death,  might  have  been  won  for  the 
South. 


i  1 


XVII. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 

1861-1865. 

Utah  Cut  Down. — Just  before  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War,  Utah  parted  with  that  portion  of  her  domain  out  of  which 
Congress  created  the  Territory  of  Nevada.  It  was  March  2nd, 
1861,  when  President  Buchanan  affixed  his  signature  to  the  Act 
organizing  that  Territory.  Nevada's  eastern  limit,  which  be- 
came Utah's  western  boundary,  was  placed  at  the  thirty-ninth 
meridian  from  Washington.* 


O   R 


D     A     H     O 


MING 


U     T    A 


CCH-ORVADO 


R  TZ   O    N   A 


NEW 
MEXICO 


UTAH  PAST  AND  PRESENT. 

During  the  same  year  the  Territory  of  Colorado  came  into 
existence,  Eastern  Utah  and  parts  of  other  Territories  being 

*Western  Utah,  which  became  Nevada,  had  then  been  occupied 
for  about  ten  years;  Hampden  S.  Beatie  building  the  first  house  at 
Genoa,  while  on  his  way  to  the  California  gold  fields.  He  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  Reese  Brothers  from  Salt  Lake  City.  Within  a  few  years 
farmers,  stock  raisers,  miners  and  merchants,  from  both  East  and 
West,  began  to  settle  along,  the  Carson  River.  Early  in  the  "fifties" 
it  was  proposed  to  annex  that  region  to  California,  and  later  an  effort 
was  made  to  induce  Congress  to  change  the  name  Utah  to  Nevada,  and 
remove  the  seat  of  government  to  Carson  County.  Before  and  after 
that  time  there  were  movements  for  the  formation  of  a  new  Territory. 
The  discovery  of  the  great  Comstock  Mine,  in  June,  1859,  largely  in- 
creased the  "Gentile"  population,  who  objected  to  being  "governed 
from  Salt  Lake  City."  In  November,  1860,  following  the  example  of 
the  founders  of  Deseret,  they  elected  a  Governor  and  Legislature  and 
petitioned  Congress  for  a  Territorial  government.  The  prayer  was 
granted,  and  the  Territory  of  Nevada  was  the  result. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  179 

taken  for  that  purpose.  Utah's  eastern  limit  was  then  fixed 
at  the  thirty-second  meridian.* 

Boundaries  Redefined. — At  the  next  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature following  the  organization  of  Nevada,  the  boundaries  of 
Utah  were  redefined.  The  counties  then  numbered  eighteen, 
namely :  Salt  Lake,  Davis,  Weber,  Utah,  Tooele,  Juab,  San- 
pete,  Millard,  Iron,  Beaver,  Washington,  Kane,  Morgan,  Box 
Elder,  Cache,  Wasatch,  Summit  and  Green  River. f 

More  Southern  Colonization. — A  visit  by  President  Young 
and  other  leading  men  to  the  southern  part  of  the  Territory,  in 
May  and  June,  1861,  resulted  in  a  renewal  of  colonizing  activ- 
ities in  that  region.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  year  several 
hundred  families  from  Northern  and  Central  Utah  settled  in 
Washington  County.  Orson  Pratt  and  Erastus  Snow  had 
charge  of  the  mission.  The  town  of  St.  George,  named  after 
George  A.  Smith,  was  located  at  that  time. 

Iron  and  Cotton. — Two  important  home  industries  were 
then  struggling  for  existence,  namely,  the  manufacture  of  iron 
at  Cedar  City,  and  the  raising  of  cotton  on  the  Rio  Virgen. 
Two  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  expended  in  the  produc- 
tion of  iron,  when  it  was  found  that  the  ore,  though  rich,  would 
not  flux,  and  the  enterprise  had  to  be  abandoned.  Cotton  had 
been  raised  in  Northern  Utah  as  early  as  1851,  and  four  years 
later  cotton  seed  from  the  Southern  States  was  planted  in  the 
valley  of  the  Santa  Clara;  the  result  being  the  first  cotton 
fabric  produced  in  the  Territory.  During  1858  Joseph  Home, 
heading  a  colony  from  Salt  Lake  City,  established  a  cotton 
farm  on  the  Rio  Virgen,  and  in  1862  cotton  mills  began  to  ap- 
pear at  Parowan  and  other  places.  These  industries  received 
an  impetus  from  the  Civil  War,  the  blockading  of  Southern 
ports  by  the  Northern  fleets  having  caused  a  scarcity  of  cot- 
ton fabric  throughout  the  country.  Part  of  the  raw  product 

*In  1862  another  degree  was  given  to  Nevada,  and  in  1866  still 
another;  these  also  being  taken  from  Utah.  When  Nebraska  and 
Wyoming  were  organized,  the  former  in  1861,  the  latter  in  1868,_each 
was  given  a  piece  out  of  the  northeastern  corner  of  this  Territory. 
These  changes  reduced  Utah  to  her  present  dimensions.  , 

fMorgan  County,  founded  in  the  spring  of  1855,  had  been  named 
for  its  pioneer,  Jedediah  Morgan  Grant,  at  that  time  one  of  the  First 
Presidency  of  the  "Mormon"  Church.  Box  Elder  and  Cache  counties 
were  created  during  the  following  winter.  The  first  settlers  of  Box 
Elder  were  William  Davis,  James  Brooks,  and  Thomas  Pierce,  who  in 
1851  laid  the  foundations  of  Brigham  City.  Cache  County  had  no  set- 
tlement at  the  time  of  its  creation,  but  in  July,  1856,  its  pioneer,  Peter 
Maughan,  chose  a  site  for  Maughan's  Fort  afterwards  named  Wells- 
ville  in  honor  of  General  Daniel  H.  Wells.  Kane  County,  called  after 
Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane,  was  organized  in  1856  out  of  a  portion  of 
Washington  County.  Wasatch  County  was  settled  in  1859  by  families 
'from  Provo  and  Nephi. 


180      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


was  worked  up  at  home  and  the  remainder  sent  to  California 
and  New  York. 

Lincoln  and  the  "Mormons." — Abraham  Lincoln  was  then 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  was  well  acquainted  with 
the  people  who  had  founded  Utah,  having  known  them  in  Illi- 
nois, and  they  looked  upon  him  as  a  friend.  When  asked,  after 
his  election  in  1860,  what  he  proposed  to  do  with  the  "Mor- 
mons," Lincoln  answered:  "I  propose  to  let  them  alone."  He 
compared  the  Utah  question  to  a  green  hemlock  log  on  a  newly 
cleared  frontier  farm — "too  heavy  to  move,  too  knotty  to  split, 

and  too  wet  to  burn."    He  pro- 
posed to  "plow  around  it." 

President  Lincoln's  ap- 
pointees for  this  Territory  in- 
cluded John  W.  Dawson,  Gov- 
ernor; Frank  Fuller,  Secretary; 
and  James  Duane  Doty,  Super- 
intendent of  Indian  Affairs. 
Dawson  was  from  Indiana, 
Fuller  from  New  Hampshire, 
and  Doty  from  Wisconsin.  The 
Federal  Judges  were  John  F. 
Kinney,  R.  P.  Flenniken  and 
H.  R.  Crosby.  Kinney  had  suc- 
ceeded Eckels  as  Chief  Justice 
in  July,  1860,  by  appointment 
from  President  Buchanan,  and 
was  continued  in  office  by  Pres- 
ident Lincoln. 

"Utah  Has  Not  Seceded." 
—During  the  year  of  the  out- 
break of  "The  Great  Rebellion," 
Utah  gave  a  rousing  celebra- 
tion of  the  Nation's  birthday. 

The  event,  though  not  unusual,  was  significant  from  the  fact 
that  the  "Mormon"  people  were  thought  to  favor  Secession, 
and  were  even  suspected  of  cherishing  a  design  to  set  up  an 
independent  government.  In  California  there  was  talk  of  a 
Western  Confederacy,  in  the  event  of  the  Southern  States 
winning  their  independence,  and  Utah  was  encouraged  to  join 
it  and  thus  secure  Statehood.  Similar  encouragement  came 
from  the  South.  But  Utah  would  not  be  drawn  into  the  mael- 
strom of  disunion.  She  proposed  to  stand  by  the  Constitution, 
and  hold  aloof  from  the  strife  and  carnage  that  were  then  rag- 
ing. She  knew  no  North,  no  South,  no  East,  no  West.  Her 
attitude,  so  far  as  it  could  be,  was  one  of  neutrality. 

The    Pacific    Telegraph.— Tn    October,    1861,    the    Pacific 


PRESIDENT   LINCOLN. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  181 

Telegraph  Line,  which  was  built  from  both  East  and  West, 
reached  Salt  Lake  City;  and  on  the  18th  of  that  month,  it  hav- 
ing been  announced  that  the  eastern  division  was  open,  the 
first  use  of  the  wire  was  courteously  tendered  to  President 
Brig-ham  Young.  His  dispatch  of  that  date  has  become  his- 
toric. It  was  to  J.  H.  Wade,  President  of  the  Pacific  Telegraph 
Company,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  contained  these  words  :  "Utah 
has  not  seceded,  but  is  firm  for  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
our  once  happy  country,  and  is  warmly  interested  in  such  use- 
ful enterprises  as  the  one>so  far  completed." 

President  Wade  answered  as  follows :  "I  have  the  honor 
to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  message  of  last  evening, 
which  was  in  every  way  gratifying,  not  only  in  the  announce- 
ment of  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  Telegraph  to  your  enter- 
prising and  prosperous  city,  but  that  yours,  the  first  message 
to  pass  over  the  line,  should  express  so  unmistakably  the 
patriotism  and  Union-loving  sentiments  of  yourself  and  neo- 
pie." 

In  the  absence  of  Governor  Dawson,  Secretary  Fuller 
made  use  of  the  wire  to  salute  President  Lincoln.  He  said : 
"Utah,  whose  citizens  strenuously  resist  all  imputations  of  dis- 
loyalty, congratulates  the  President  upon  the  completion  of 
an  enterprise  which  spans  a  continent,  unites  two  oceans,  and 
connects  with  nerve-  of  iron  the  remote  extremities  of  the 
body  politic  with  the  great  governmental  heart.  May  the 
whole  system  speedily  thrill  with  the  quickened  pulsations  o.f 
that  heart,  as  the  parricide  hand  is  palsied,  treason  is  punished, 
and  the  entire  sisterhood  of  States  join  hands  in  glad  reunion 
around  the  national  fireside."  President  Lincoln  replied  :  "The 
completion  of  the  Telegraph  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City  is  auspi- 
cious of  the  stability  and  union  of  the  Republic.  The  Govern- 
ment reciprocates  your  congratulations." 

The  arrival  of  the  Telegraph  was  an  event  of  the  first  im- 
portance. The  electric  wire,  superseding  the  Pony  Express, 
placed  Utah  in  daily  communication  with  the  Atlantic  and  Pa- 
cific seaboards.  It  was  the  dawn  of  a  new  era,  the  full  blaze 
of  which,  however,  did  not  come  until  after  the  advent  of 
the  railroad. 

Guarding  the  Overland  Route. — -To  protect  the  mail  route 
and  telegraph  line  from  hostile  Indians  and  other  enemies  of 
the  Government,  a  portion  of  the  Utah  militia  was  called  into 
service.  President  Lincoln,  by  Adjutant  General  L.  Thomas, 
in  a  telegram  dated  April  28,  1862,  requested  Ex-Governor 
Young  to  raise,  arm  and  equip  a  company  of  cavalry  for  that 
purpose.  The  men  were  to  receive  the  same  pay  as  United 
States  troops,  and  continue  in  service  until  relieved  by  a  de- 
tachment of  the  regular  army. 


182      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  response  to  the  call  was  hearty  and  immediate.  With- 
in three  days  Captain  Lot  Smith,  at  the  head  of  seventy-two 
mounted  men,  took  up  line  of  march  for  Independence  Rock, 
the  scene  of  a  late  Indian  disaster.  Ben  Holladay,  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  Overland  Stage  Line,  telegraphed  from  New 
York  thanking  President  Young  for  his  "prompt  response  to 
President  Lincoln's  request."  The  Lot  Smith  here  mentioned 
was  the  same  who  in  1857  had  destroyed  the  Government 
trains  on  Green  River.  He  and  his  comrades  now  rendered 
valiant  service  For  ."Uncle  Sam"  and  won  golden  opinions 
from  the  United  States  army  officers  who  joined  them  with 
troops  and  directed  their  later  movements. 

Another  Movement  for  Statehood. — The  winter  of  1861- 
1862  found  Utah  again  knocking  for  admission  at  the  door  of 
the  Federal  Union.  The  Territory  then  had  a  population  of 
more  than  forty  thousand,  and  in  view  of  the  secession  of  so 
many  States  the  prospect  for  admission  seemed  quite  favor- 
able. "We  show  our  loyalty  by  trying  to  get  in,  while  others 
are  trying  to  get  out,"  said  Delegate  Hooper,  in  a  private  letter 
written  at  the  time. 

The  Legislative  bill  providing  for  a  Constitutional  Con- 
vention was  vetoed  by  Governor  Dawson,  who  gave  as  his 
reason  that  there  was  not  time  enough  before  the  'date  fixed 
for  the  election  of  delegates  to  notify  the  people  or  submit  the 
measure  to  Congress.  The  delegates  were  chosen,  however, 
and  in  January,  1862,  they  assembled  at  Salt  Lake  City,  framed 
and  adopted  a  State  Constitution,  and  provided  for  the  organ- 
ization of  a  State  Government.  The  officers  were  elected  in 
March,  and  the  government  was  organized  in  April ;  though, 
of  course  it  did  not  go  into  operation.  Congress  was  asked  -to 
admit  Utah  under  the  name  of  Deseret. 

The  Memorial  and  the  Constitution  were  presented  at 
Washington  by  William  H.  Hooper  and  George  Q.  Cannon, 
the  proposed  United  States  Senators.  Mr.  Cannon,  when 
elected,  was  in  Europe,  but  joined  his  colleague  at  the  national 
capital.  Captain  Hooper,  on  his  way  from  Salt  Lake  City,  was 
accompanied  as  far  as  the  North  Platte  by  a  mounted  escort 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Robert  T.  Burton. 

Governor  Dawson's  Departure. — Governor  Dawson,  who 
had  succeeded  Governor  Cumming  after  a  short  interval  dur- 
ing which  Secretary  Wootten  was  Acting  Governor,  made  but 
a  brief  stay  in  Utah.  He  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City  early  in 
December,  1861,  but  within  thirty  days  set  out  upon  his  return 
to  Indiana,  having  fallen  into  disgrace  by  making  an  inde- 
cent proposal  to  a  respectable  woman.  At  Hanks'  "Mi«l  c 
lion,  east  of  Little  Mountain,  the  coach  in  which  the  Governor 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


183 


was  traveling  was  waylaid  by  a  gang  of  ruffians,  who  robbed 
and  maltreated  him.  But  he  was  soon  avenged.  Within  a 
few  weeks  three  of  the  despera- 
does, who  -had  been  the  terror 
of  the  community,  were  slain 
while  resisting  officers  of  the 
law.  Before  Dawson's  arrival, 
and  after  his  departure,  Secre- 
tary Frank  Fuller  acted  as 
Governor  pending  the  appoint- 
ment of  another  Executive. 

Why  Utah  Was  Kept  Out 
of  the  Union. — Congress  was 
not  yet  converted  to  the  idea 
of  admitting  Utah  into  the 
Union,  and  many  years  elapsed 
before  conversion  came.  The 
main  cause  was  a  deep-seated 
suspicion  that  the  majority  of 
the  people  of  this  Territory 
were  unfriendly  to  the  Nation. 
An  un-American  condition  of 
affairs  was  supposed  to  exist 
here,  hostile  to  the  Government 
and  subversive  of  morality  and 
civilization.  Priestcraft,  polygamy,  and  murder  were  thought 
to  be  the  chief  corner-stones  of  "Mormonism."  A  union  of 
Church  and  State  was  alleged.  It  was  charged  that  the  "Mor- 
mon" people  were  under  the  sway  of  an  ecclesiastical  despot- 
ism which  "overshadowed  and  controlled  their  opinions,  ac- 
tions, property,  and  lives,  penetrating  and  supervising  social 
and  business  circles,  and  requiring  implicit  obedience  to  the 
counsel  of  the  Church,  as  a  duty  paramount  to  all  the  obliga- 
tions of  morality,  society,  allegiance  and  law." 

The  Real  "Mormon"  Attitude. — As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
"Mormon"  people  have  never  been  in  bondage  to  anyone.  The 
obedience  they  render  to  their  Church  is  purely  voluntary,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Catholic  Church,  or  any  other  religious  body 
in  Christendom.  Compulsion  is  no  part  of  the  "Mormon"  sys- 
tem. Murder,  to  the  Latter-day  Saint,  is  most  abhorrent;  and 
the  execution  of  the  murderer,  by  the  State,  the  only  adequate 
punishment  in  such  cases.  The  extreme  penalty  visited  by 
the  Church  upon  recalcitrant  members  is  excommunication. 
The  civic  affairs  of  the  people  are  as  distinct  from  their  spir- 
itual affairs  as  the  taxes  they  pay  to  the  Government  are  sep- 
arate from  the  tithes  given  to  the  Church.  Their  allegiance  to 
God  makes  obligatory  upon  them  the  fullest  and  truest  loyalty 


184      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

to  the  Nation.     Anything  to  the  contrary  is  a  misconception 
of  the  "Mormon"  attitude. 

While  denouncing  the  mobs  that  shed  their  blood,  burned 
their  homes,  and  drove  them  into  the  wilderness;  and  while 
criticizing  men  who  sanctioned  those  misdeeds,  or  were  indif- 
ferent to  a  redress  of  such  grievances,  they  have  steadfastly 
affirmed  their  fealty  to  country  and  their  attachment  to  Amer- 
ican institutions.  Goaded  and  exasperated,  they  have  at  times 
given  vent  to  their  feelings  and  made  freer  use  of  their  tongues 
than  men  and  women  living  in  less  strenuous  days  would  deem 
necessary  or  wise;  but  that  such  expressions  against  persons 
or  policies  constitute  treason  to  the  Government,  or  unfriend- 
liness to  the  Nation,  the  "Mormons"  emphatically  deny.  Hold- 
ing the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  have  been  founded 
by  heavenly  inspiration,  and  revering  the  Federal  Constitution 
almost  as  a  divine  instrument,  disloyalty  to  country  would 
mean  to  them  treason  to  God,  falsity  to  their  .most  sacred 
convictions. 

"An  Establishment  of  Religion." — As  for  polygamy,  or 
the  plural  wife  system,  that  was  a  feature  of  their  religious 
faith,  part  of  a  principle  known  as  Eternal  Marriage,  or  mar- 
riage for  time  and  eternity.  And  yet  only  a  limited  number  of 
those  connected  with  the  Church  entered  into  the  practice  of 
plural  marriage ;  but  they  were  generally  influential  and  among 
the  best  men  and  women  of  the  community.  Coming  to  them 
as  a  revelation  from  God,  this  principle  was  viewed  as  "an  es- 
tablishment of  religion,"  with  which  Congress,  under  the  Con- 
stitution, had  no  right  to  interfere.* 

The  Anti-Bigamy  Law. — Against  this  form  of  marriage, 
however,  the  Federal  Government  sternly  set  its  face,  and  un- 
til the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  withdrew 
sanction  from  the  further  solemnization  of  plural  marriages, 
Utah  knocked  in  vain  for  admission  into  the  Union.  The 
answer  to  her  prayer  for  Statehood  in  1862  was  the  Anti- 


*"Mormon"  plural  marriage  was  not  the  oriental  polygamy  of 
modern  times.  The  harem  or  seraglio  was  unknown.  Each  wife  had 
her  own  home,  as  a  rule,  with  her  own  children  around  her;  and  the 
several  wives  of  one  man  were  all  equally  honorable  in  the  commu- 
nity, and  their  children  equally  legitimate,  so  far^  as  the  Church  was 
concerned.  Plural  marriage  was  not  bigamy;  it  involved  neither  de- 
sertion nor  deception.  The  first  wife  was  a  party  to  it,  her  consent 
being  obtained  by  her  husband  before  he  added  another  wife  to  his 
household.  "Polygamy,"  meaning  "many  marriages,"  signified  among 
the  "Mormons"  plurality  of  wives — nothing  more,  and  the  most  rigid 
morality  was  required  of  those  who  entered  into  such  relations.  It 
was  held  to  be  the  restored  marriage  system  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs: 
hence  its  other  name.  Patriarchal  Marriage.  Tt  was  also  termed  Celcs 
tial  Marriasre.  though  that  signified  marriage  IV>r  eternity,  whether 
with  one  wife  or  more.  The  marital  status  is  regarded  by  the  Latter- 
day  Saints  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  attainment  of  the  highest 
exaltation  hereafter. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  185 

Bigamy  Law,  the  first  legislation  of  the  kind  that  found  its  way 
into  the  statute  book  of  the  Nation.  The  bill  for  this  law  was 
introduced  into  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Justin  S. 
Morrill,  of  Vermont.  Having  passed  both  houses  of  Congress, 
it  received  the  signature  of  President  Lincoln,  July  8,  1862.* 

The  Morrisite  Affair. — During  the  summer  of  that  year 
Utah  had  a  rebellion  of  her  own,  and  its  suppression  cost  sev- 
eral lives.  It  was  known  as  "The  Morrisite  War,"  in  which 
the  leader  of  a  small  religious  sect  and  a  few  of  his  followers 
were  killed  while  resisting  a  Marshal's  posse,  sent  to  serve 
and  enforce  a  process  of  the  Third  District  Court.  Two  of  the 
posse  were  also  slain. 

The  "Morrisites,"  numbering  about  five  hundred  men, 
women  and  children,  inhabited  a  little  settlement  called  King- 
ton  Fort,  immediately  west  from  the  mouth  of  Weber  Can- 
yon. Three  of  the  men,  upon  attempting  to  leave  the  fort 
without  making  satisfactory  settlement  of  certain  claims,  were 
imprisoned,  and  the  leaders,  Joseph  Morris,  John  Banks,  Rich- 
ard Cooke,  John  Parsons,  and  Peter  Klemgaard,  disregarded 
and  treated  with  contempt  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  issued 
by  Chief  Justice  Kinney,  commanding  them  to  bring  before 
him  the  persons  they  held  in  custody.  This  writ,  dated  Mav 
22,  1862,  was  issued  to  the  Territorial  Marshal,  Henrv  W. 
Lawrence,  and  served  by  his  deputy,  Judson  L.  Stoddn^ 

After  the  service  of  the  process  there  was  a  delay  of  over 
two  weeks,  during  which  one  of  the  captives  eluded  the  vigi- 
lance of  his  guards  and  regained  his  liberty.  The  others,  Wil- 
liam Jones  and  John  Jenson,  were  kept  in  close  confinement, 
upon  no  particular  charge  and  certainly  without  any  warrant, 
of  law.  The  delay  was  occasioned  by  a  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  civil  officers  to  avert  trouble.  The  "Morrisites,"  fanatical, 
well  armed,  and  well  drilled,  were  capable  of  a  strong  resist- 
ance, and  the  hope  was  entertained  that  by  the  exercise  of 
moderation  the  affair  could  be  made  to  terminate  without  vio- 
lence. 

In  response  to  repeated  importunities  from  the  wives  and 

*This  statute  classed  plural  marriage  with  bigamy,  and  made  it 
punishable  by  a  fine  of  five  hundred  dollars  and  imprisonment  for  a 
term  of  five  years.  Tt  was  the  ceremony  of  plural  marriage  that  was 
aimed  at,  not  the  living  in  polygamous  relations;  that  point  being  left 
untouched.  Certain  acts  of  the  Utah  Legislature,  supposed  to  counte- 
nance, encourage,  and  protect  plural  marriage,  were  annulled,  and  the 
property-holding  power  of  religious  organizations  in  ihe  Territories 
was  limited,  in  real  estate,  to  the  value  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  The 
law  proved  inoperative,  little  or  no  effort  being  made  to  enforce  it. 
The  Latter-day  Saints  regarded  it  as  unconstitutional,  and  this  opinion 
was  shared  by  lawyers,  editors  and  statesmen  all  over  the  land.  The 
statute  was  in  existence  seventeen  years  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  declared  it  constitutional. 


186      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

other  relatives  of  the  imprisoned  men,  Judge  Kinney, -on  the 
10th  of  June,  issued  another  writ,  this  time  directing  the  Ter- 
ritorial Marshal  to  arrest  the  "Morrisite"  leaders  and  bring 
them  into  court,  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law.  The  charge 
against  them  now  was  twofold:  First,  unlawful  imprisonment 
of  the  seceding  members  of  their  sect;  second,  contempt  of 
court  in  refusing  to  release  them  when  commanded.  General 
Wells,  being  called  upon  for  a  military  posse,  furnished  suf- 
ficient force  to  overcome  all  opposition.  Marshal  Lawrence 
was  then  absent  from  the  Territory,  and  the  responsibility  of 
carrying  out  .the  order  of  the  court  devolved  upon  his  chief 
deputy,  Colonel  Robert  T.  Burton. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  June  13th,  the  Marshal's  posse, 
numbering  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  arrived  near  Kington 
Fort.  A  summons  to  surrender  within  thirty  minutes  was  sent 
in,  with  a  further  direction  to  the  inmates,  that  if  resistance 
was  determined  upon,  they  were  to  remove  their  women  and 
children  to  places  of  safety.  They  were  likewise  informed  that 
all  peaceably  disposed  persons  would  find  protection  with  the 
posse. 

The  command  to  surrender  was  unheeded  by  Morris,  who 
encouraged  his  followers  to  resist,  promising  them  divine  pro- 
tection. After  an  hour  or  more,  no  word  having  come  from 
the  fort,  two  cannon  shots  were  fired  from  a  bluff  where  the 
posse  stood,  as  a  warning  to  the  rebellious  inmates.  One  of 
these  shots  passed  high  over  the  fort  and  struck  the  opposite 
bluff;  the  other,  alighting  in  a  field  between  the  posse  and 
the  fort,  bounded  into  a  bowery  where  the  people  were  assem- 
bled, killing  two  women  and  wounding  a  young  girl. 

The  "Morrisites"  grasped  their  guns  and  ran  to  their  en- 
trenchments. During  the  three  days'  battle  and  siege  that 
followed,  two  of  the  besiegers,  Jared  Smith  and  J.  P.  Whiplin 
fell.  After  the  fighting  on  the  first  day,  Colonel  Burton  sent  a 
written  report  to  Acting-Governor  Fuller,  who  answered  him 
in  these  words  :  "The  shedding  of  blood  in  resistance  to  civil 
authority  renders,  execution  of  the  law  imperative. 
Let  your  acts  be  tempered  with  mercy,  but  see  that  the  laws 
are  vindicated." 

About  sunset  of  the  third  day  a  white  flag  was  hoisted  by 
those  within  the  fort,  and  the  leader  of  the  posse,  with  a  few 
men,  rode  in  to  receive  the  surrender.  While  the  "Morris- 
ites" were  stacking  their  arms,  leave  was  asked  for  their  leader 
to  address  them.  The  request  was  granted  on  condition  that 
he  would  say  nothing  to  cause  further  excitement.  Morris, 
who  was  probably  insane,  disregarded  this  caution.  Lifting  his 
hands  above  his  head,  he  shouted:  "All  who  are  willing  to 
follow  me  through  life  and  death,  come  on!"  Shouts  of  ap- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


187 


proval  met  the  appeal,  and  a  dash  was  made  for  the  firearms. 
A  hundred  frenzied  fanatics  confronted  the  Deputy  Marshal 
and  his  slender  escort.  The  moment  was  one  of  extreme  peril. 
He  commanded  the  leaders  to  halt.  They  heeded  not.  The 
command  was  repeated,  and  again  ignored.  Colonel  Burton 
then  seized  the  pistol  in  his  holster  and  fired  twice,  several  of 
his  men  doing  likewise.  Morris  was  killed,  Banks  was  wounded, 
and  two  women  were  accidentally  slain.  The  survivors,  hav- 
ing laid  down  their  arms,  were  marched  to  Salt  Lake  City  and 
placed  under  bonds  to  appear  at  the  next  session  of  the  District 
Court. 

Everyone  deplored  the  fatalities  connected  with  this 
unfortunate  affair,  none  more  sincerely  than  the  leader  of  the 
posse.  He  was  harshly  criticized  by  some,  who  contended 
that  the  "Morrisites"  (dissenting  "Mormons")  had  been  un- 
justly dealt  with,  and  that  religious  rancor  had  instigated  the 
proceedings  against  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  had  been 
shown  every  reasonable  consideration,  by  the  ecclesiastical  as 
well  as  by  the  civic  authorities.  None  dreamed  that  the 
sequel,  many  years  later,  would 
be  the  trial  for  murder  of  the 
brave  and  efficient  officer  who 
had  faithfully  performed  the 
painful  duty  laid  upon  him.  His 
acquittal  was  confidently  look- 
ed for,  and  was  greeted  with 
general  satisfaction. 

New  Governor  and  Judges. 
—The  next  incumbent  of  the 
Governor's  office  was  Stephen 
S.  Harding,  of  Indiana.  Ap- 
pointed during  March,  1862,  he 
arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City  in 
July,  and  was  followed  shortly 
by  Associate  Justices  Charles 
B.  Waite  and  Thomas  J..  Drake, 
who  succeeded  Judges  Flenni- 
ken  and  Crosby.  Waite  was 
from  Illinois,  and  Drake  from 
Michigan. 

Colonel  Connor  and  His  Command. — The  suspicion  that 
the  people  of  Utah,  or  the  great  majority  of  them,  were  dis- 
loyal, and  that  a  condition  of  affairs  existed  here  that  might 
at  any  time  break  out  into  open  revolt  against  the  Federal 
Government,  induced  Secretary  of  War  Stanton  to  order  the 
establishment  near  Salt  Lake  City  of  a  military  post,  to  be 
maintained  for  the  purpose  of  "watching  Brigham  Young  and 


GOVERNOR  HARDING. 


188     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


the  Mormons."  This  was  the  principal  reason  why  Camp 
Douglas  (now  Fort  Douglas)  was  founded  by  Colonel  Patrick 
Edward  Connor  and  the  California  and  Nevada  Volunteers. 

The  "Mormon"  people,  offended  by  the  imputation  that 
came  with  the  troops,  were  probably  no  more  chagrined  by 
the  action  of  the  War  Department  than  was  Colonel  Connor 

himself.  A  tame  and  super- 
fluous task  had  been  assigned 
to  a  man  of  restless  energy,  a 
brave  man  and  a  born  fighter. 
He  had  been  a  captain  during 
the  Mexican  War,  and  when 
the  news  of  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter  reached  the  Pacific 
Coast,  had  promptly  placed  his 
sword  at  his  country's  service. 
Commissioned  a  colonel  of  in- 
fantry by  the  Governor  of  Cali- 
fornia, Connor  had  recruited 
his  companies  and  was  expect- 
ing to  be  sent  to  the  front, 
when  he  received  the  disap- 
pointing order  to  march  to 
Utah — ostensibly  to  guard  the 
Overland  Route,  and  hold  the 
Indians  in  check;  in  reality  to 

GENERAL  CONNOR.  perform  vedette  duty,  keep  the 

Government    acquainted    with 

affairs  in  and  around  Salt  Lake  City,  and  extend  protection  to 
"Gentiles"  and  apostates  who  might  complain  of  oppression 
at  the  hands  of  their  "Mormon"  neighbors. 

Marching  to  Utah. — Colonel  Connor  set  out  for  Utah  in 
July,  1862.  His  command  then  consisted  of  the  Third  Cali- 
fornia Infantry  and  part  of  the  Second  California  Cavalry.  On 
the  way  a  few  companies  from  Nevada  joined  them,  making 
the  entire  force  a  little  more  than  seven  hundred  men.  Leav- 
ing his  troops  in  Ruby  Valley,  the  commander  came  on  to 
Salt  Lake  City,  arriving  early  in  September.  He  remained  a 
few  days,  and  then  rejoined  his  troops  in  Nevada.  Finding  his 
officers  and  men  still  burning  with  impatience  to  be  sent  to  the 
seat  of  war,  he  endorsed  their  demand  to  that  effect  in  a  dis- 
patch to  the  General  in  Chief  of  the  United  States  Army.* 

*Colonel  Connor  stated  that  his  men  were  of  no  service  on  the 
mail  route,  -which  could  be  amply  protected  by  the  cavalry  already  in 
the  Utah  District.  They  authorized  the  Paymaster  to  withhold  thirty 
thousand  dollars  due  to  them,  and  proffered  to  pay  their  own  passage 
from  San  Francisco  to  Panama,  if  the  Government  would  only  order 
them  East  "to  fight  traitors."  Subsequently  one  of  the  Volunteers 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


189 


The  Volunteers  continued  their  march,  reaching,  on  the 
17th  of  October,  Fort  Crittenden  (old  Camp  Floyd)  which  had 
passed  into  the  possession  of  private  parties,  who  had  pur- 
chased the  buildings  from  the  Government.  Hoping  to  re-sell 
at  a  large  profit,  these  owners  did  all  in  their  power  to  persuade 
Colonel  Connor  to  establish  permanent  quarters  there.  He, 
however,  had  set  his  heart  upon  a  location  nearer  the  Utah 
capital.  While  proceeding  northward,  at  the  Point  of  the 
Mountain  a  rumor  reached  him  to  the  effect  that  his  advance 
would  be  resisted  by  an  armed  force,  and  preparations  were 
made  to  encounter  the  opposition ;  but  it  did  not  appear.  Later 
it  was  learned  that  the  warlike  rumor  had  been  circulated  by 
the  Camp  Floyd  speculators,  in  the  hope  of  influencing  a  recon- 
sideration of  the  commander's  purpose. 

Founding    Camp    Douglas. — It  was  the  20th  of  October 


OFFICERS'  QUARTERS,   FORT   DOUGLAS. 

when  Colonel  Connor  with  his  troops  entered  Salt  Lake  City. 
Their  coming  created  no  excitement.  Having  saluted  the  Gov- 
ernor at  his  residence,  not  far  from  the  Theatre  corner,  they 
marched  on  to  the  eastern  foothills,  between  two  and  three 
miles  from  the  centre  of  town,  and  there  encamped  preparatory 
to  building  Camp  Douglas,  on  a  beautiful  site  overlooking  Salt 

wrote  thus  to  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin:  "Brigham  Young  offers  to 
protect  the  entire  line  with  one  hundred  men.  Why  we  were  sent  here 
is  a  mystery.  It  could  not  be  to  keep  Mormondom  in  order,  for  Brig- 
ham  can  thoroughly  annihilate  us  with  the  five  thousand  to  twenty-five 
thousand  frontiersmen  always  at  his  command." 


190      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Lake  Valley.  Until  the  erection  of  regular  barracks,  the  sol- 
diers sheltered  themselves  in  huts  and  dug-outs.  Camp  Doug- 
las was  named  after  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois. 

For  the  uses  of  the  military  post  the  waters  of  Red  Butte 
Canyon  were  appropriated;  thus  diminishing  the  none  too  plen- 
tiful supply  for  settlers  below.  Moreover,  that  portion  of  the 
stream  which  reached  the  plain  was  befouled  by  diversion  to 
the  neighborhood  of  stables  and  corrals,  and  so  rendered  unfit 
for  drinking  or  for  culinary  purposes.  Added  to  this  annoy-' 
ance,  when  the  Camp  Douglas  reservation  was  set  apart,  it  was 
found  to  overlap  the  borders  of  the  municipality.  These  cir- 
cumstances constituted  the  main  objections  to  the  placing  of 
the  post  on  that  particular  site.* 

The  Bear  River  Battle.— In  January,  1863,  Colonel  Con- 
nor, with  about  three  hundred  men,  fought  the  battle  of  Bear 
River,  defeating  an  equal  force  of  Indians — Bannocks  and  Sho- 
shones — and  completely  breaking  the  power  of  the  hostiles  in 
that  region.  The  main  incidents  leading  up  to  the  fight  were 
the  killing  of  some  miners  while  passing  through  Cache  Val- 
ley on  their  way  from  the  Dakota  gold  fields,  and  the  proposed 
arrest  of  three  Indian  chiefs  who  were  held  responsible  for  the 
murder.  Warrants  of  arrest  issued  by  Judge  Kinney  were 
placed  in  the  hands  of  United  States  Marshal  Isaac  L.  Gibbs, 
and  he  laid  the  matter  before  the  commander  at  Fort  Douglas. 
Three  days  later  Colonel  Connor  started  a  company  of  in- 
fantry, with  two  howitzers,  for  the  Indian  camp,  twelve  miles 
from  the  present  town  of  Franklin,  Idaho,  and  he  soon  fol- 
lowed with  four  companies  of  cavalry,  having  as  his  guide 
the  famous  "Mormon"  scout,  Orrin  Porter  Rockwell.  Marshal 
Gibbs  also  went  with  the  expedition.  The  hardships  of  the 
march  were  extreme,  the  snow  being  deep  and  the  cold  in- 
tense. 

The  battle  was  fought  on  the  29th,  beginning  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  Indians  -were  entrenched  in  a 
narrow  dry  ravine,  whose  steep,  rocky  sides  sheltered  them 
from  the  fire  of  their  assailants.  The  latter,  advancing  along 
the  level  tableland,  were  exposed  to  the  volleys  of  a  concealed 
foe,  and  several  fell,  killed  or  wounded,  at  the  first  fire.  These 
were  cavalrymen,  who  were  endeavoring  to  surround  the  sav- 
ages, when  the  latter  defeated  the  movement  by  attacking 
them.  Meantime  the  infantry  had  forded  the  icy  waters  of 
Bear  River,  and  a  successful  flanking  movement  soon  enabled 

*Happily  these  grievances  have  all  passed  away.  By  successive 
acts  of  Congress,  parts  of  the  military  reservation  have  been  included 
in  the  campus  of  the  University  of  Utah,  and,  what  is. still  more  grati- 
fying, friendly  relations  have  existed  for  many  years  between  the  City 
in  the  plain  and  the  Post  on  the  hill. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  191 

the  troops  to  pour  an  enfilading  fire  into  the  ravine.  The  In- 
dians fought  with  fury,  but  were  now  at  a  disadvantage,  and 
by  ten  o'clock  their  rout  was  complete.* 

Colonel  Connor's  victory  proved  a  great  boon  to  the  set- 
tlers of  Northern  Utah.  It  sounded  a  warning  to  the  savages 
that  did  not  need  to  be  repeated.  The  War  Department  com- 
mended the  Volunteers  for  their  gallant  service,  and  their 
Colonel  was  commissioned  a  Brigadier  General. 

Bear  Lake  Valley  Colonized.— During  1863  Bear  Lake 
Valley  was  explored  by  General  Charles  C.  Rich,  who,  in  1864, 
founded  the  first  settlements  in  that  part.  These  were  the 
towns  of  Paris  and  St.  Charles,  now  in  Southeastern  Idaho. 
St.  Charles  was  named  in  honor  of  General  Rich.  The  same 
year  Richland  (now  Rich)  County  was  organized  out  of  a  por- 
tion of  Cache  County,  and  likewise  christened  for  its  founder. 

Call's  Landing — The  Muddy  Mission. — Southward,  also, 
the  work  of  colonization  continued.  Late  in  1864  Anson  Call, 
the  pioneer  of  Millard  County,  was  sent  to  "the  head  of  nav- 
igation" on  the  Colorado  River,  to  select  a  site  for  a  Church 
station  and  warehouse;  the  purpose  being  to  bring  emigrants 
and  freight  by  that  route  from  the  Pacific  Coast.  A  station 
known  as  Call's  Landing  was  established  more  than  a  hun- 
dred miles  southwest  from  St.  George,  After  the  first  ship- 
ment of  goods  the  enterprise  languished ;  its  further  develop- 
ment being  anrested  by  the  prospective  early  completion  of  the 
trans-continental  railroad.  The  establishment  of  Call's  Land- 
ing led  to  the  founding  of  the  Muddy  Mission,  just  over  the 
Utah-Nevada  line.f 

Governor  Harding's  Change  of  Heart. — At  the  beginning 
of  his  administration,  Governor  Harding  manifested  much 
friendliness  toward  the  founders  of  Utah.  In  an  eloquent  ad- 
dress on  Pioneer  Day,  he  commended  their  industry  and  pa- 
triotism, and  declared  that  he  came  among  them  "a  messenger 
of  peace  and  good  will,"  with  "no  wrongs  to  complain  of  and 


*Arnong  the  slain  chiefs  were  Bear  Hunter,  Sagwitch  and  Lehi. 
T\vo  other  chiefs,  Sanpitch  and  Pocatello,  with  about  fifty  braves,  es- 
caped. The  losses  on  the  other  side  were  fourteen  killed  and  forty- 
nine  wounded.  Eight  of  these  died  within  ten  days,  the  number  in- 
cluding Lieutenant  Darwin  Chase,  who  had  been  a  "Mormon."  He 
was  buried  at  Farmington.  Seventy  Indian  lodges  were  burned,  and  a 
large  quantity  of  grain,  implements  and  other  property,  believed  to 
have  been  stolen  from  emigrants,  was  destroyed  or  carried  to  Camp 
Douglas  and  sold. 

tThis  mission,  whose  pioneer  was  Thomas  S.  Smith,  comprised  the 
settlements  of  St.  Thomas,  St.  Joseph  and  Overtoil,  which  date  from 
1865.  Later,  they  were  abandoned,  but  only  temporarily.  All  three 
towns  are  now  in  Lincoln  County,  Nevada. 


192      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

no  religious  prejudice  to  overcome."  In  his  speech  of  wel- 
come to  Colonel  Connor  he  expressed  disappointment  at  his 
coming  with  his  command  to  Salt  Lake  City,  instead  of  re- 
occupying  old  Camp  Floyd,  but  disclaimed  for  the  Govern- 
ment or  its  representatives  any  unfriendly  motive  in  connec- 
tion with  the  troops.  He  advised  citizens  and  soldiers  to  re- 
spect each  other's  rights,  and  pledged  to  both  his  sympathy 
and  support  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order. 

But  the  feelings  of  the  new  Executive  soon  underwent  a 
radical  change.  Adopting  the  notion  prevalent  at  Camp  Doug- 
las, that  the  majority  of  the  people  were  not  in  sympathy  with 
the  Federal  Government,  Harding,  in  his  first  message  to  the 
Legislature,  December,  1862,  criticised  them  on  that  score.  He 
also  found  fault  with  their  religion — the  plural  marriage  princi- 
ple, practised  by  some  of  them. 

Federal  Officials  Versus  the  People. — Subsequently  it  be- 
came known  that  the  Governor,  with  Judges  Waite  and  Drake, 
was  seeking  to  influence  Congressional  legislation,  with  a 
view  to  placing  the  selection  of  jurors  in  the  hands  of  the 
United  States  Marshal,  and  empowering  the  Governor  to  ap- 
point all  the  militia  officers  of  the  Territory.  Much  indigna- 
tion was  felt  and  expressed  over  what  was  considered  an  at- 
tempt "to  subvert  every  right  of  free  citizenship,"  and  at  a 
mass  meeting  held  in  the  Old  Tabernacle,  where  speeches  were 
made  by  Brigham  Young,  John  Taylor,  and  others,  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  two  Judges  were  accused  of  endeavoring  to  stir 
up  strife,  not  only  between  the  people  of  Salt  Lake  City  and  the 
troops  at  Camp  Douglas,  but  also  between  the  citizens  of  the 
Territory  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  Resolu- 
tions of  censure  were  passed,  and  a  committee  consisting  of 
John  Taylor,  Jeter  Clinton  and  Orson  Pratt,  was  appointed 
to  wait  upon  the  three  officials  and  request  them  to  resign.  In 
anticipation  of  a  refusal  on  their  part,  a  petition  was  sent  to 
Washington,  asking  President  Lincoln  to  remove  them. 

As  expected,  the  request  for  the  resignation  proved  un- 
availing. Moreover,  a  counter  petition,  signed  by  General  Con- 
nor and  his  officers,  asking  that  the  Governor  and  Judges  be 
allowed  to  retain  their  places,  was  forwarded  to  the  capital  of 
the  Nation. 

Exciting  Rumors. — About  this  time  a  rumor  became  cur- 
rent that  troops  from  Camp  Douglas  were  preparing  to  make 
a  descent  upon  the  home  of  President  Young  and  "run  him  off 
to  the  States  for  trial;"  a  recent  case  of  polygamy  being  the 
alleged  cause  of  action.  General  Connor  denied  that  such  a 
movement  was  contemplated,  but  his  denial  did  not  convince, 
and  the  residence  of  the  "Mormon"  leader  was  surrounded 
night  and  day  by  armed  guards,  ready  to  defend  him  against 


TI-LK  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  193 

any  assault.  On  the  charge  preferred,  President  Young  sub- 
mitted to  arrest  by  the  United  States  Marshal,  and  was  taken 
before  Chief  Justice  Kinney  at  the  State  House  (Council 
House).  After  a  hearing  the  Judge  held  him  in  bonds  to  await 
the  action  of  the  Grand  Jury.  That  body  failed  to  indict  him, 
and  he  was  discharged  on  the  ground  of  insufficient  evidence. 

A  very  bitter  feeling  now  prevailed;  the  relations  be- 
tween civilians  and  soldiers  were  tense  and  strained;  and  a 
collision  seemed  imminent.  Sensational  reports  were  tele- 
graphed abroad,  and  the  press  teemed  with  comments  upon  the 
prospect  of  "another  Utah  war."  As  usual,  the  "Mormons" 
received  most  of  the  blame.  Some  of  the  papers,  however, 
including  one  or  more  in  California,  were  outspoken  in  their 
criticism  of  the  Camp  Douglas  commander.  He  was  accused 
of  "kicking  up  trouble,"  and  reminded  that  the  Government 
had  "enough  righting  on  its  hands,"  and  there-was  "no  neces- 
sity of  increasing  it." 

Convictions  and  Pardons. — At  the  March"  .term  of  the 
Third  District  Court  (1863)  the  "Morrisites"  captured  at  the 
surrender  of  Kington  Fort  were  tried  before  Chief  Justice  Kin- 
ney. Of  ten  men  who  had  been  indicted  for  killing  two  mem- 
bers of  the  Marshal's  posse,  seven  were  convicted  of  murder 
in  the  second  degree,  and  two  acquitted ;  the  remaining  one 
not  being  prosecuted.  Those  convicted  were  sentenced  to  va- 
rious terms  of  imprisonment.  Sixty-nine  others  were  fined 
one  hundred  dollars  each  for  resisting  an  officer  of  the  law. 
Within  three  days  of  the  trial  Governor  Harding,  in  response 
to  a  petition  from  Federal  and  Camp  Douglas  officers,  par- 
doned all  the  convicted  men  and  set  them  at  liberty.* 

Indignant  Judge  and  Grand  Jury. — Indignant  at  this 
action  of  the  Governor,  the  Grand  Jury  passed  formal  censure 
upon  his  course.  Judge  Kinney  approved  of  what  the  Grand 
Jury  had  done,  and  ordered  the  presentment  spread  upon  the 
records  of  the  court. 

Removals  and  Appointments. — In  June  of  that  year  Gov- 
ernor Harding  was  removed  from  office.  His  successor  was 
James  Duane  Doty,  former  Indian  Superintendent.  Doty 
was  a  very  estimable  gentleman,  and  his  appointment  gave 
general  satisfaction.  Harding's  removal,  according  to  Mr. 

*Most  of  these  people,  after  being  employed'  at  Camp  Douglas  for 
a  time,  accompanied  a  detachment  of  troops  to  Idaho,  where  a  new 
military  post  was  established  in  the  vicinity  of  Soda  Springs.  Before 
leaving  Utah  one  of  their  number,  Alexander  Dow,  made  affidavit  be- 
fore Associate  Justice  Waite,  relative  to  the  affair  at  Kington  Fort. 
He  declared  that  the  shooting  of  Morris  and  Banks  and  the  two  women 
was  deliberate  and  unprovoked.  The  Dow  affidavit  was  the  ground- 
work for  the  prosecution  instituted  in  after  years  against  the  officer 
who  had  carried  out  the  mandate  of  the  court  and  compelled  obedience 
to  its  authority. 

12 


194      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Stenhouse,  "did  credit  to  the  Government ;"  his  private  life  not 
being  of  such  a  character  as  to  make  him  the  proper  person  to 

lecture  the  "Mormons"  on  the 
immorality  of  polygamy.  Judge 
Kinney  and  Secretary  Fuller 
were  also  removed;  "subservi- 
ency to  Brigham  Young"  be- 
ing the  privately  expressed  rea- 
son in  their  case.  The  vacan- 
cies were  filled  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  John  Titus  as  Chief 
Justice,  and  Amos  Reed  as  Sec- 
retary. Titus  was  from  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Reed  from  Wis- 
consin. Judges  Waite  and 
Drake  retained  their  places. 
The  former,  in  the  intervals  of 
official  duty,  busied  himself 
in  the  preparation  of  a  book, 
"The  Mormon  Prophet,"  a 
work  much  quoted  by  subse- 
quent "Anti-Mormon"  writers. 
Kinney  as  Delegate. — In 
A'ugust,  1863,  Judge  Kinney 
was  elected  Delegate  to  Con- 
gress. He  followed  Dr.  Bern- 

hisel,  who  had  served  a  third  term,  succeeding  Captain  Hooper 
in  1861.  Delegate  Kinney's  first  speech  in  Congress  (Janu- 
ary, 1864)  was  a  ringing  reply  to  Representative  Fernando 
Wood,  of  New  York,  who,  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  had  re- 
ferred to  the  people  of  Utah  as  "profligate  outcasts,"  always 
"hostile  to  the  moral  and  political  institutions  of  the  United 
States."  In  another  speech,  delivered  in  March,  Kinney 
made  a  strong  appeal  for  the  admission  of  Utah  into  the 
Union,  presenting  a  bill  for  an  act  to  enable  the  people  of  the 
Territory  to  form  a  State  Government.  The  appeal,  as  usual, 
was  in  vain.* 

*Mr.  Wood,  in  his  unfriendly  allusion  to  Utah,  laid  stress  upon 
her  militant  attitude  toward  the  Federal  Government  in  1857-1858. 
The  New  York  Congressman,  being  a  pronounced  "Copperhead,"  had 
a  vulnerable  spot  in  his  armor,  and  Kinney's  keen  verbal  weapon 
quickly  found  it.  He  declared  that  a  man  who  would  stand  up  in  the 
American  Congress,  at  a  time  when  the  Government  was  struggling  for 
its  existence,  and  pronounce  the  effort  made  by  it  to  put  down  the 
rebellion  "a  hellish  crusade,"  ought  to  be  expelled  as  unworthy  to 
ocupy  a  seat  upon  that  floor.  He  then  stated  the  facts  connected  with 
the  Utah  Expedition,  and  eulogized  the  toils  and  sacrifices  of  the 
founders  of  the  Territory.  The  Philadelphia  Press  described  the 
speech  as  "a  sharp,  opportune  and  overwhelming  reply  to  the  Chief  of 
Copperheads." 


GOVERNOR  DOTY. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  195 

The  Mining  Movement. — In  the  autumn  of  1863  General 
Connor  headed  a  movement  for  the  development  of  Utah's 
mining  resources.  That  the  Wasatch,  Oquirrh,  and  Uintah 
Mountains  teemed  with  all  kinds  of  minerals,  had  long  been 
known.  Iron  in  Iron  County,  lead  in  Beaver  County,  copper 
in  Salt  Lake  County,  and  coal  in  many  parts,  had  been  mined 
long  before  the  founder  of  Camp  Douglas  came  to  the  Terri- 
tory. The  Rollins  Lead  Mine,  near  Minersville,  had  been 
worked  as  early  as  1858,  and  there  the  Lincoln  Mining  District 
was  organized  in  1861.  But  the  first  settlers,  and  especially 
the  leaders,  did  not  favor  mining  for  the  precious  metals  dur- 
ing the  primitive  days  of  the  commonwealth.  Some  of  their 
reasons  have  already  been  presented.  It  but  remains  to  say 
that  their  experience  during  Camp  Floyd  times  had  strength- 
ened their  determination  not  to  encourage  the  nocking  into 
Utah  of  a  rough  and  reckless  element,  such  as  is  commonly 
found  among  inhabitants  of  mining  camps,  the  world  over. 
They  made  no  secret  of  their  opposition  to  such  an  undesir- 
able inflow,  nor  did  they  apologize  for  their  attitude  in  relation 
to  it.  That  attitude,  however,  furnished  "Anti-Mormonism" 
with  one  of  its  most  effective  weapons;  the  plausible  though 
groundless  statement  being  made  that  all  "Gentiles"  were  un- 
welcome in  Utah,  and  that  it  was  the  purpose  and  policy  of 
the  "Mormons"  to  prevent  them  from  settling  here. 

The  mining  movement  of  1863  began  in  Bingham  Canyon, 
one  of  the  gorges  of  the  Oquirrh  Mountains  running  into 
Salt  Lake  Valley.  A  logger  named  Ogilvie  picked  up  a  piece 
of  silver-bearing  ore  and  sent  it  to  General  Connor,  who  had 
it  assayed.  The  General  then  visited  the  canyon,  with  a  party 
of  officers  and  their  wives,  and  one  of  the  ladies,  while  ram- 
bling on  the  mountain  side,  found  another  loose  piece  of  ore. 
The  soldiers  prospected  for  the  vein,  and  having  discovered 
it,  made  their  location,  naming  the  mine  "The  Jordan."  Their 
commander  drew  up  some  mining  regulations,  and  at  a  meet- 
ing of  miners  held  at  Gardner's  Mill,  the  West  Mountain 
Mining  District  was  organized.  About  that  time  General 
Connor,  with  some  of  his  troops,  reoccupied  the  old  Rush 
Valley  grazing  grounds,  which  the  soldiers  at  Camp  Floyd 
had  used.  There  they  laid  off  the  town  of  Stockton,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  explore  and  prospect  for  mines  in  that  vicinity. 

Proposed  Regeneration. — The  Commander  of  the  Utah 
Military  District  did  not  hide  the  fact  that  he  had  formed 
plans  for  the  development  of  this  part  of  the  country,  quite  at 
variance  with  those  favored  by  Brigham  Young  and  the  Pio- 
neers. He  had  set  himself  the  task  of  "regenerating"  the 
Territory.  His  avowed  policy  was  "to  invite  hither  a  large 
Gentile  and  loyal  population,  sufficient  by  peaceful  means 


196      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  through  the  ballot  box  to  overwhelm  the  Mormons  by 
mere  force  of  numbers,  and  thus  wrest  from  the  Church — dis- 
loyal and  traitorous  to  the  core — the  absolute  and  tyrannical 
control  of  temporal  and  civil  affairs."  Such  was  his  frank, 
almost  fierce,  announcement. 

Vedette  and  Telegraph. — In  pursuance  of  "  this  policy, 
General  Connor  established  a  paper,  "The  Union  Vedette," 
which  was  published  first  at  Camp  Douglas  and  afterwards 
at  Salt  Lake  City.  Its  tone  was  militant,  like  its  title.  The 
editor  was  Captain  Charles  H.  Hempstead,  one  of  Connor's 
subordinates,  afterwards  a  leading  member  of  the  Utah  Bar. 
The  "Vedette,"  at  the  time  of  its  appearance,  was  the  one  jour- 
nalistic rival  of  the  "Deseret  News;"  the  "Valley  Tan"  and 
the  "Mountaineer"  having  ceased  to  exist.  In  January,  1864, 
it  became  a  daily  paper,  the  first  one  published  in  the  Terri- 
tory. During  the  following  July  "The  Daily  Telegraph"  ap- 
peared, with  T.  B.  H.  Stenhouse  as  editor.  Mr.  Stenhouse 
was  then  a  "Mormon." 

The  Vedette,  in  its  first  number,  contained  a  circular  let- 
ter on  the  mining  outlook,  signed  by  Captain  Hempstead  as 
Adjutant.  General  Connor  promised  protection  to  all  miners 
who  would  come  to  Utah,  and  stated  that  "should  violence 
be  offered  or  attempted"  to  miners  in  the  pursuit  of  their  law- 
ful occupation,  "the  offender  or  offenders,  one  or  many,  would 
be  tried  as  public  enemies  and  punished  to  the  utmost  extent 
of  martial  law."  Such  was  the  spirit  of  the  so-called  "Re- 
generators." Utah  was  to  be  reformed,  not  only  through  the 
ballot  box,  but  if  need  be  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

A  Provost  Guard. — The  Camp  Douglas  commander  fol- 
lowed up  this  proclamation  by  placing  a  provost  guard  in 
Salt  Lake  City.  The  troops  were  quartered  in  a  long,  low 
adobe  building,  originally  a  store,  then  standing  nearly  oppo- 
site the  south  gate  of  Temple  Block.  The  building  was  owned 
by  the  "Mormon"  Church,  but  had  been  let  to  Captain  Stover, 
for  a  military  storehouse.  General  Connor  ordered  Stover 
with  his  wares  to  Camp  Douglas,  and  proceeded  to  utilize  the 
building  for  quite  another  purpose.  Captain  Hempstead  was 
the  provost  marshal,  and  Company  "L"  of  the  Second  Cali- 
fornia Cavalry,  the  guard.  They  took  possession  of  their 
quarters  on  a  Sunday  afternoon,  just  as  the  people  were  as- 
sembling for  worship  in  the  Tabernacle  across  the  way. 

General  Connor  gave  as  his  reasons  for  placing  this 
guard,  that  the  chief  men  of  the  "Mormon"  Church  were 
"making  their  tabernacles  and  places  of  worship  resound  each 
Sabbath  with  the  most  outrageous  abuse  of  all  that  pertained 
to  the  Government ;"  and  that  "their  prayers  were  ascending 
loudly  from  the  house  tops  for  a  continuance  of  the  War  till 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  197 

the  hated  Union  should  be  sunk."  Along  with  these  allega- 
tions went  others  to  the  effect  that  the  establishment  of  the 
guard  had  caused  excitement  and  armed  assembling  among  the 
"Mormons,"  and  that  the  mining  movement,  "despite  the 
counsel,  threats,  and  obstacles  of  the  Church,"  was  "going  on 
with  giant  strides."* 

The  plain  facts  were  these  :  General  Connor's  mining  move- 
ment was  struggling  for  a  bare  existence,  and  by  the  end  of 
another  year  had  disappeared  almost  entirely;  and  that,  too, 
without  interference  from  anybody.  At  the  Tabernacle  and 
in  other  places  there  was  much  heated  talk;  but  it  was  aimed 
at  the  "Regenerators"  and  others  like  them.  Men  in  high 
places  were  criticised — as  they  always  have  been,  in  every 
State  and  Territory  of  the  Union;  but  no  "Mormon"  consid- 
ered such  criticism  an  assault  upon  the  Government  itself. 
There  was  no  great  influx  of  "Gentile"  miners  and  merchants, 
and  no  excitement  and  armed  assembling  among  the  "Mor- 
mons." As  to  "prayers  ascending  from  the  house  tops,"  the 
reader  need  scarcely  be  assured  that,  for  that  bit  of  orientalism 
the  fiery  commander  was  drawing  upon  an  overheated  imag- 
ination. 

The  duties  of  the  provost  guard  were  not  onerous.  Be- 
yond the  occasional  arrest  of  some  half  drunken  ''Southern 
sympathizer,"  who,  to  tantalize  "the  boys  in  blue"  would 
"hurrah  for  Jeff  Davis"  in  their  hearing,  the  soldiers  had  lit- 
tle to  do.  Persons  arrested  were  made  to  pace  to  and  fro  in 
front  of  the  guard-house,  carrying  upon  their  shoulders  heavy 
bags  of  sand.  While  attempting  an  arrest  in  front  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Theatre,  just  as  the  audience  was  dispersing  one 
night,  a  member  of  the  guard  fired  into  the  crowd,  wounding 
an  innocent  bystander,  a  young  man  named  William  Vander- 
hoof.  Luckily  he  was  not  seriously  hurt.  After  about  a  year, 
the  guard  was  withdrawn. f 

Bridging  the  Chasm. — The  social  gulf  dividing  citizens 
and  soldiers  was  happily  bridged  on  the  4th  of  March,  1865, 
when  both  sides  joined  in  celebrating  the  second  inaugura- 
tion of  President  Lincoln.  A  public  procession,  in  which 
Camp  Douglas  officers  and  troops,  with  Federal  and  City  au- 
thorities and  detachments  of  the  militia,  took  part,  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  program  of  exercises  in  front  of  "The  Market," 
at  the  junction  of  Main  and  First  South  Streets.  There  was 
an  introductory  address  by  Captain  Hempstead,  and.  prayer 


*See  letter  of  General  Connor,  dated  Camp  Douglas,  July  21,  1864, 
to  Assistant  Adjutant  General  R.  C.  Drum,  San  Francisco. 

tThe  old  storehouse  vacated  by  the  troops  became  in  after  years 
the  Deseret  Museum.  At  one  time  it  housed  a  department  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Deseret,  which  had  its  home  in  the  Council  House,  nearby. 


198      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

by  the  Camp  Douglas  chaplain,  Reverend  Norman  McLeod, 
after  which  came  an  oration  from  Judge  Titus  and  a  speech 
from  Ex-Delegate  Hooper.  The  Federal  troops  were  escorted 
back  to  the  post  by  Colonel  Burton  and  the  citizen  cav- 
alry. During  the  evening,  at  a  banquet  given  in  the  City 
Hall,  and  attended  by  Camp  Douglas  officers  and  others, 
Mayor  Smoot  proposed  as  a  toast :  "The  health  of  President 
Lincoln,  and  success  to  the  armies  of  the  Union!" 

General  Connor  was  much  impressed  with  what  he  saw 
and  heard  that  day.  The  patriotic  pageantry  and  sentiments, 
so  heartily  applauded  by  the  multitude,  were  in  the  nature  of 
a  revelation  to  the  stern  warrior.  "He  wanted  differences  to 
be  forgotten,"  says  Mr.  Stenhouse,  "and  with  gentlemanly 
frankness  approached  the  author  with  extended  hand  and 
expressed  the  joy  he  felt  in  witnessing  the  loyalty  of  the  masses 
of  the  people."  The  Vedette  expressed  itself  in  a  similar  tone. 
A  discontinuance  of  that  paper  was  hinted  at  by  its  founder, 
in  recognition  of  what  he  regarded  as  a  decided  change  in  the 
conditions  surrounding  him.  But  most  of  the  metamorphosis 
was  within  himself.  The  people  of  Utah  had  always  been  pa- 
triotic, but  his  prejudice  had  prevented  him  from  seeing  it. 
General  Connor's  eyes  were  being  opened  to  the  true  situa- 
tion in  this  much  misunderstood  Territory. 

Mourning  for  Lincoln. — Six  weeks  later  the  awful  news 
was  flashed  over  the  wires  that  President  Lincoln  had  been  as- 
sassinated. Utah  joined  in  the  general  sorrow,  and  civilians 
and  soldiers,  again  uniting,  mourned  together  over  the  Na- 
tion's martyr.  It  was  Saturday,  April  15th,  when  the  terri- 
ble tidings  came.  Everywhere  flags  were  displayed  at  half 
mast,  and  public  and  private  buildings  were  draped  in  mourn- 
ing. "Brigham  Young's  carriage  was  driven  through  town 
covered  with  crepe" — so  said  the  Vedette — "and  everyone 
throughout  the  city,  that  is,  of  the  right-minded  class,  mani- 
fested the  deepest  sorrow  at  the  horrible  news  conveyed  by 
the  telegraph."  On  the  day  of  the  President's  burial  a  joint 
funeral  service  was  held  in  the  Old  Tabernacle,  City  Marshal 
Jesse  C.  Little  having  charge  of  the  proceedings.* 

*Three  "Mormon"  Apostles  took  part  in  the  service,  namely, 
Amasa  M.  Lyman,  who  delivered  an  address;  and  Wilford  Woodruff 
and  Franklin  D.  Richards,  who  offered  the  opening  and  closing  prayers. 
The  only  other  speaker  was  Reverend  Norman  McLeod. 


XVIII. 
LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES. 

1865-1867. 

The  Colfax  Visit. — During  the  year  1865  a  number  of  per- 
sons of  national  repute,  on  their  way  to  or  from  the  Pacific 
Coast,  stopped  off  at  the  Utah  capital.  One  of  them  was 
Schuyler  Colfax,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Included  in  his  party  were  Lieutenant-Governor  William 
Bross,  of  Illinois;  Samuel  Bowles,  editor  of  the  Spring-field 
(Massachusetts)  Republican;  and  Albert  D.  Richardson,  of  the 
editorial  staff  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  They  arrived  at  Salt 
Lake  City  on  Sunday,  June  llth,  and  remained  eight  days. 

It  was  largely  owing  to  Mr.  Colfax  and  his  efforts  in 
Congress,  that  the  far  West  was  then  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
daily  mail  and  a  telegraph  line,  and  was  soon  to  have  the  rail- 
road for  which  it  had  waited  so  long.  He  and  his  friends,  to 
use  their  own  words,  were  "the  recipients  of  a  generous  and 
thoughtful  hospitality."  The  coach  containing  them,  after 
leaving  Camp  Douglas,  where  they  had  halted  for  refresh- 
ments, was  met  on  the  foot-hills  by  a  reception  committee,  of 
which  William  H.  Hooper  was  chairman.  The  visitors  were 
conducted  to  the  Salt  Lake  House,  apartments  having  been 
prepared  for  them.  They  were  the  guests  of  the  City  during 
their  stay.* 

The  main  incidents  of  the  Colfax  visit  were ;  A  speech 
by  the  future  Vice  President  from  the  balcony  of  his  hotel ; 
two  interviews  between  him  and  President  Brigham  Young; 
a  trip  to  Rush  Valley,  to  view  the  mining  operations  there ;  a 
bath  in  the  Great  Salt  Lake ;  a  special  performance  at  the 
Theatre;  a  Sunday  service  at  the  Bowery,  with  President 
Young  as  the  speaker ;  and  later  in  the  day,  at  the  same 
place  an  oration  by  Mr.  Colfax  on  the  life  and  principles 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  first  of  the  interviews  took  place  at 
the  Salt  Lake  House;  the  "Mormon"  leader  and  his  associates 


*In  his  book  entitled  "Across  the  Continent/'  published  after  his 
return  to  the  East,  Mr.  Bowles  refers  to  the  experiences  of  himself 
and  friends  in  Utah.  "We  find  here,"  says  he,  "a  great  deal  of -true 
and  good  human  nature  and  social  culture;  a  great  deal  of  business 
intelligence  and  activity;  a  great  deal  of  generous  hospitality — besides 
most  excellent  strawberries  and  green  peas,  and  the  most  promising 
orchards  of  apricots,  peaches,  plums,  and  apples  that  these  eyes  ever 
beheld  anywhere." 


200      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

calling"  upon  the  party  from  the  East.  For  the  second  and 
most  important  interview,  which  occurred  on  the  17th  of  June, 
the  visitors  came  to  the  President's  Office. 

The  Polygamy  Question. — At  the  beginning-  of  the  con- 
versation President  Young  inquired  what  the  Government  and 
the  people  in  the  East  proposed  to  do  with  polygamy,  now  that 
they  had  got  rid  of  the  slavery  question ;  an  inquiry  probably 
suggested  by  the  fact  that  the  National  Republican  Party, 
which  was  then  in  power,  had  been  pledged  from  its  inception 
to  the  extirpation  of  "slavery  and  polygamy — twin  relics  of 
barbarism."  Mr.  Colfax  replied  that  he  had  no  authority  to 
speak  for  the  Government,  but  he  hoped  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  would  themselves  put  a  stop  to  the  practice.  As  the 
people  of  Maryland  and  Missouri,  believing  slavery  wrong  and 
an  impediment  to  their  prosperity,  had  abolished  it  without 
waiting  for  the  action  of  the  General  Government,  so  he  hoped 
the  Latter-day  Saints  would  see  that  polygamy  was  a  hin- 
drance, not  a  help,  and  move  for  its  abandonment.  President 
Young  defended  the  plural-wife  doctrine,  but  admitted  that  it 
had  been  abused  by  some  who  had  entered  into  the  practice. 
He  maintained,  however,  that  when  rightly  lived  it  was  not 
only  biblical,  but  had,  within  proper  limits,  a  sound  philosoph- 
ical reason  and  moral  propriety.  The  discussion,  according  to 
Mr.  Bowles,  was  "general  and  sharp,  though  very  good- 
natured."  Mr.  Colfax  and  his  friends  stated  in  conclusion  that 
they  hoped  the  polygamy  question  would  be  removed  from 
existence,  in  order  that  all  objection  to  the  admission  of  Utah 
as  a  State  might  be  taken  away.  Until  that  time  no  such  ad- 
mission was  possible,  and  the  Government  could  not  continue 
to  look  indifferently  upon  the  enlargement  of  so  offensive  a 
practice. 

Death  of  Governor  Doty. — While  the  Colfax  party  was 
still  in  Utah.  Governor  Doty  died — June  13th — and  at  the 
funeral  two  days  later,  Speaker  Colfax  and  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Bross  were  among  the  pall-bearers.  The  deceased  was 
a  native  of  the  State  of  New  York,  but,  as  previously  shown, 
had  come  to  Utah  from  Wisconsin.  t  He  was  in  his  sixty-sixth 
year  when  death  summoned  him.  Governor  Doty  was  sin- 
cerely mourned,  for  he  was  much  beloved.  The  obsequies 
were  held  at  the  Executive  residence,  and  the  interment  took 
place  at  Camp  Douglas,  whose  chaplain,  Mr.  McLeod,  had 
officiated  at  the  funeral. 

Another  Congressional  Visitor. — Another  Congressman 
came  to  Utah  that  year — Honorable  James  M.  Ashley,  Chair- 
man of  the  House  Committee  on  Territories.  He  arrived  at 
Salt  Lake  City  in  time  to  participate  in  the  celebration  of  the 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  201 

Fourth  of  July.  George  Q.  Cannon  was  orator  of  the  day, 
but  Mr.  Ashley  also  made  an  address,  commending  the  work 
of  the  Pioneers  and  thanking  the  people  for  their  patriotic 
demonstration. 

Ashley  seemed  to  think  that  Utah  had  a  future  clouded 
with  gloom.  In  an  interview  with  George  A.  Smith  and  John 
Taylor,  presiding  respectively  over  the  Council  and  the  House 
of  the  Territorial  Legislature,  he  stated  that  "the  religious 
element  ruled  the  country,"  that  the  clergy  "had  it  their  own 
way,"  and  that  the  feeling  against  the  "Mormon"  Church  was 
intensified  throughout  the  Nation  as  never  before.  The  onset 
might  come  at  any  time,  and  it  would  be  terrible.  Sherman's 
march  through  Georgia,  with  all  its  attendant  horrors,  might 
be  duplicated  in  Utah  by  an  army  made  up  of  the  refuse  of 
those  very  troops.  Such  was  the  substance  of  the  Congress- 
man's forecast.  The  men  whom  he  addressed  were  not  dis- 
mayed by  these  pessimistic  forebodings.  Armies  had  come 
and  gone,  leaving  Utah  and  her  people  unscathed;  and  it  would 
be  so  in  the  future.  President  Young  declared  as  much  to  Mr. 
Ashley  in  an  interview  that  followed. 

Hooper  Again  Delegate. — During  the  proceedings  on  In- 
dependence Day  the  name  of  William  H.  Hooper  was  again 
put  forward  for  Delegate  to  Congress.  He  had  previously 
been  nominated,  and  was  elected  in  the  ensuing  August.  Cap- 
tain Hooper,  like  his  predecessor,  Judge  Kinney,  was  tradi- 
tionally a  Democrat.* 

Julia  Dean  Hayne. — The  next  notable  arrival  was  from 
the  West.  In  midsummer  of  that  year  the  famous  actress 
Julia  Dean  Hayne  came  w'ith  the  Potter  Dramatic  Troupe 
from  California,  by  way  of  Montana  and  Idaho.  She  was  re- 
turning to  New  York,  her  former  home,  after  an  absence  of 
several  years,  but  tarried  in  Utah  for  an  extended  engagement 
at  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre ;  an  engagement  opening  with  the 
play  of  "Camille,"  on  the  evening  of  August"  llth.  Mrs. 


*Ashley  and  Hooper  were  destined  to  meet  again.  The  former 
introduced  a  bill  into  Congress  "to  extend  the  boundaries  of  the  States 
of  Nevada,  Minnesota  and  Nebraska,  and  the  Territories  of  Colorado, 
Montana  and  Wyoming" — in  other  words,  to  partition  Utah  .among 
the  neighboring  commonwealths.  Delegate  Hooper,  in  a  speech  de- 
livered on  the  floor  of  the  House,  February  25,  1869,  gave  the  measure 
its  death  blow. 

Judge  Kinney,  at  the  close  of  his  Congressional  career,  returned 
to  his  eastern  home.  Subsequently  he  removed  to  San  Diego,  Cali- 
fornia, and  again  came  to  Utah  in  1897,  as  a  delegate  to  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  Congress.  Two  years  later  he  settled  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
where  he  died  August  16,  1902. 


202      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


JULIA  DEAN  HAYNE. 


Hayne's  renown  as  an  artiste 
was  national,  but  in  no  part  of 
the  land  was  she  more  admired 
or  more  esteemed  than  in  Utah. 
While  here  she  married  again, 
having  separated  from  Mr. 
Hayne  in  California.  Her  sec- 
ond husband  was  James  G. 
Cooper.  On  the  occasion  of  her 
farewell,  June  30,  1866,  in  a 
pretty  speech  from  the  stage 
she  thanked  President  Young 
''for  many  courtesies  to  a 
stranger,  lone  and  unprotect- 
ed," and  in  the  name  of  her  art 
expressed  her  high  appreciation 
of  the  order  and  beauty  that 
!  reigned  throughout  that  house. 
I  "I  would  that  the  same  purity 
'  prevailed  in  every  temple  for 
the  drama's  teachings,"  said 
the  great  actress  in  conclu- 
sion.* 


SALT  LAKE  THEATRE. 


*Salt  Lake's  famous  old  playhouse  was  then  in  its  infancy.  Begun 
in  July,  1861,  it  was  completed,  and  the  first  performance  given  there 
March  8,  1862.  The  players  were  the  Deseret  Dramatic  Association— 
Hiram  P>.  Clawson  manager,  John  T.  Caine  stage  manager.  The 
plays  presented  were  "The  Pride  of  the  Market"  and  "State  Secrets." 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES. 


203 


Governor  Durkee. — Charles  Durkee,  the  sixth  Governor 
of  Utah,  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  September.  Like  Gov- 
ernor Doty  he  was  from  Wisconsin,  and  like  him  won  the 
respect  and  love  of  the  people 
whom  he  had  been  sent  to  gov- 
ern. With  him  came  Colonel 
Franklin  H.  Head,  who  suc- 
ceeded Colonel  O.  H.  Irish  as 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Af- 
fairs. Colonel  Irish  and  Col- 
onel Head  were  both  efficient 
officers.  The  former  was  so 
well  thought  of  that  an  effort 
had  been  made  from  Utah,  both 
by  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles," 
to  secure  for  him  the  office  of 
Governor.  This,  however,  was 
before  Durkee's  appointment. 

Indian  Treaties. — In  June, 
1865,  pursuant  to  an  act  of  Con- 
gress extinguishing  the  Indian 
title  to  certain  lands,  Superin- 
tendent Irish,  aided  by  the  in- 
fluence and  presence  of  Ex- 
Governor  Young  and  other 
prominent  citizens,  made  a 
treaty  with  fifteen  chiefs  at  the  Spanish  Fork  Reservation 
Farm.  Among  those  present  were  Chiefs  Kanosh,  Sowiette, 
Sanpitch,  and  Tabby.  Dimick  B.  Huntington  and  George  W. 
Bean  acted  as  interpreters.  The 'Indians  promised  to  move 
within  a  year  to  Uintah  Valley,  giving  up  the  lands  they  then 


GOVERNOR  DURKEE. 


Doors  opened  at  six  p.  m.  and  performance  began  at  seven:  admission 
to  parquet  and  first  and  second  balconies,  seventy-five  cents;  third 
circle,  fifty  cents.  During  the  first  season  home  talent  held  the  boards 
exclusively,  but  dramatic  stars  from  abroad  soon  began  to  appear. 
The  earliest  was  the  stately  tragedian  Thomas  A.  Lyne,  who  had 
played  before  "Mormon"  audiences  at  Nauvoo.  Then  came  the  ver- 
satile Irwins  (Mr.  and  Mrs.  Selden  M.),  and  the  polished  English 
actor,  George  Pauncefort — all  before  the  advent  of  the  magnificent 
Julia  Dean  Hayne.  Mrs.  Hayne  was  first  supported  by  George  B. 
Waldron  and  the  Potter  Troupe,  and  subsequently  by  the  Deseret 
Dramatic  Association.  The  Salt  Lake  Theatre  was  built  and  owned 
by  Brigham  Young;  William  H.  Folsom  being  the  architect  and 
superintendent  of  construction.  The  original  cost  was  over  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  Editor  Bowles  (already  quoted)  praised  this 
playhouse  as  "a  rare  triumph  of  art  and  enterprise,"  and  declared  that 
"no  eastern  city  of  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants"  (Salt  "Lake 
then  having  less  than  twenty  thousand)  possessed  "so  fine  a  theatrical 
structure." 


204      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

occupied.  They  agreed  to  be  peaceable,  to  cultivate  the  reser- 
vation lands,  and  send  their  children  to  the  schools  established 
for  them.  The  Government  in  return  promised  to  protect 
them,  to  furnish  them  with  homes  and  employment,  to  pay 
yearly  sums  to  the  principal  chiefs,  and  to  distribute  annually 
among  the  tribes  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  for  ten  years, 
twenty  thousand  for  the  next  twenty  years,  and  fifteen  thous- 
and for  thirty  years  thereafter.  The  Indians  were  permitted 
to  hunt,  dig  roots,  and  gather  berries  on  all  unoccupied  lands, 
arid  to  fish  in  their  accustomed  places.  All  the  chiefs  named 
signed  the  agreement.  About  the  middle  of  September 
Colonel  Irish  concluded  a  similar  treaty  with  the  Piede  Indians 
in  Washington  County,  and  later  Colonel  Head  rendered  like 
service  with  other  tribes. 

The  Black  Hawk  War. — The  Spanish  Fork  treaty  was 
made  during  the  progress  of  an  Indian  war,  the  most  serious 
affair  of  its  kind  that  took  place  between  savages  and  settlers 
in  Utah.  The  leader  of  the  hostiles  was  a  chief  named  Black 
Hawk,  most  of  whose  followers  were  renegade  Utes.  Chief 
Sanpitch,  violating  his  pledge  of  peace,  which  had  been  given 
reluctantly,  joined  the  marauders  and  lost  his  life  during  one 
of  their  raids.  The  Black  Hawk  War — for  so  it  was  called — 
began  in  April,  1865.  As  usual,  with  such  events,  it  grew  out 
of  a  slight  cause.  The  provocation  was  given  at  Manti,  where 
one  of  the  citizens,  in  a  spirit  of  bravado,  roughly  pulled  an 
Indian  off  his  horse.  This  Indian  was  a  son  of  the  Ute  chief 
Arapeen,  who  had  recently  died.  The  insult  was  made  the 
pretext  for  a  series  of  raids  upon  cattle  herds  in  Sanpete,  Sevier 
and  other  counties.  Then  followed  a  fierce  conflict  in  which 
rifle  and  torch  were  employed  destructively. 

Militia  Service  and  Fatalities. — The  brunt  of  the  strife  was 
borne  by  the  settlers  in  the  ravaged  districts,  and  by  militia- 
men who  came  to  their  assistance  from  other  parts.  Regular 
military  aid,  requested  from  General  Connor,  and  afterwards 
from  his  successor,  Colonel  Carroll  H.  Potter,  was  refused ; 
the  Camp  Douglas  troops  being  "wanted  elsewhere."  The 
citizen  soldiers,  to  the  number  of  several  hundred,  served  with 
courage,  energy  and  fidelity,  some  giving  their  lives  for  the 
common  defense.  The  first  victim  of  savage  ferocity  was 
Peter  Ludvigsen,  of  Manti,  who  was  conducting  a  recon- 
noisance  at  Twelve-Mile  Creek,  a  few  days  after  the  beginning 
of  the  trouble,  when  he  was  shot  by  Indians  in  ambush.  At 
the  same  place,  in  June,  1867,  a  similar  fate  befell  Major  John 
W.  Vance  and  Sergeant  Heber  Tloutz,  the  former  from  Alpine, 
Utah  County,  and  the  latter  from  Salt  Lake  City.  Another 
tragedy  of  the  period  was  the  murder  of  Dr.  J.  M.  Whitmore 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  205 

and  Robert  Mclntyre,  of  St.  George,  who  were  killed  by  In- 
dians at  Pipe  Springs  Ranch,  Arizona,  in  January,  1866. 

Among  those  who  took  the  field  or  directed  military  op- 
erations at  that  time,  were  Generals  Daniel  H.  Wells  and 
Robert  T.  Burton,  Colonels  John  R.  Winder  and  Heber  P. 
Kimball,  of  Salt  Lake  City;  also  Brigadier  Generals  Warren 
Snow,  William  D.  Pace  and  Erastus  Snow,  of  Sanpete,  Utah 
and  Washington  counties,  respectively.  Southern  Utah  had 
its  own  troubles,  but  each  of  the  counties  in  that  part  sent  aid 
into  Sanpete  and  Sevier.  Assistance  also  came  from  Davis 
County. 

1  Expense  and  Losses. — During  the  war  about  seventy 
white  people  were  killed  and  a  great  amount  of  property  w"as 
destroyed.  Six  nourishing  settlements  in  Sevier  and  Piute 
counties,*  four  in  Sanpete  County,  fifteen  in  Iron,  Kane,  and 
Washington  counties,  and  two  or  three  in  Wasatch  County, 
had  to  be  abandoned,  with  an  almost  total  loss  of  stock  and 
improvements.  The  expense  and  losses,  aggregating  one  and 
a  half  million  dollars,  were  borne  by  the  people  of  Utah,  in- 
stead of  by  the  General  Government,  as  usual  in  such  cases. 
The  financial  statement,  prepared  by  Colonel  Winder  and  pre- 
sented by  Adjutant  General  H.  B.  Clawson,  was  approved  by 
Governor  Durkee  as  a  just  claim  upon  the  National  Treasury; 
but  Congress  refused  to  appropriate  any  part  of  the  amount. 
Since  those  days,  however, — days  of  prejudice  and  misunder- 
standing,— many  of  Utah's  Indian  War  veterans  have  been 
pensioned  by  the  Government. 

The  Deseret  Telegraph.— While  the  Black  Hawk  War  was 
in  progress,  the  Deseret  Telegraph  Line  was  established  and 
extended  through  Northern,  Central  and  Southern  Utah.  The 
first  circuit  was  from  Logan  to  St.  George,  with  a  branch  line 
to  Sanpete  Valley.  There  and  in  other  places  the  militia  on 
guard  rendered  efficient  aid  in  putting  up  poles,  stringing 
wires,  and  building  stations.  The  Telegraph  was  of  great  ser- 
vice to  the  troops,  and,  strange  to  say,  was  not  molested  by 
the  red  men,  who  were  either  ignorant  of  the  uses  of  the 
electric  wire,  or  too  superstitious  to  interfere  with  the  light- 
ning messenger. 

President  Young  had  led  out  in  the  establishment  of  this 
important  enterprise.  A  call,  issued  by  him  to  leading  men 
throughout  the  Territory  in  November,  1865,  met  with  a  hearty 
response.  The  line  was  surveyed,  the  work  of  hauling  poles 

*The  first  settlement  in  Sevier  County  (Richfield)  was  founded  in 
1863,  by  Albert  Lewis  and  others  from  Manti;  and  the  first  in  Piute 
County  (Circleville)  in  1864,  by  William  J.  Allred  and  a  number  of 
families  from  Ephraim. 


206      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


from  the  canyon  begun,  money  for  the  purchase  of  wire  and 
other  materials  collected  and  sent  East,  and  in  the  autumn  of 
1866  the  wagons  containing  the  freight  arrived  in  charge  of 
Captain  Horton  D.  Haight.  On  the  first  of  December  the  line 
was  opened  between  Salt  Lake  City  and  Ogden ;  and  within 
six  weeks  five  hundred  miles  of  wire  had  been  strung,  the  cost 
of  construction  being  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  mile. 
The  line  was  extended  until  it  embraced  all  the  Utah  mining 
camps,  reached  into  Idaho,  and  connected  St.  George  with 
Pioche,  Nevada.* 

"The  Great  Half-way  Place."— Brigadier  General  O.  E. 
Eabcock,  U.  S.  A.,  after  inspecting,  by  order  of  the  War  De- 
partment, the  military  posts  of 
the  West,  reported  to  Secretary 
Stanton,  in  October,  1866,  that 
Salt  Lake  City,  "from  its  cen- 
tral locality  in  the  heart  of  the 
great  mountain  district,  with  a 
line  of  telegraph  east  to  the  At- 
lantic and  west  to  the  Pacific, 
also  one  running  north  and 
south  through  the  Territory; 
its  lines  of  stages  to  the  Mis- 
souri River  and  the  Pacific,  to 
Idaho  and  the  Columbia  River, 
to  Montana  and  the  Pahranagat 
Mines ;"  was  "the  great  half- 
way place  across  the  conti- 
nent." He  described  Fort  Brid- 
ger,  which  had  been  rebuilt  as  a 
Government  post  in  the  midst 
of  a  reservation  twenty-five 
miles  square,  as  in  "a  shameful 
condition — grounds  not  policed, 
buildings  out  of  order,  flooring 

burned  up,  bridges  burned,  and  shade  trees  broken  down." 
Camp  Douglas,  on  the  contrary,  was  "in  neat  condition,  with 
a  garrison  of  some  three  hundred  and  fifty  men." 

"Gentile"  Activities. — Major  General  Hazen  was  in  Utah 
during  the  same  autumn.  He  reported  that  the  "Gentiles" 
then  residing  at  Salt  Lake  City  numbered  about  three  hun- 

*Brigham  Young  was  president  of  the  Deseret  Telegraph  Com- 
pany. A.  Milton  Musser  was  its  superintendent  and  manager.  A  school 
of  telegraphy,  taught  by  John  Clowes  at  Salt  Lake  City,  was  attended 
by  students  from  other  settlements.  One  of  these  was  Anthon  H. 
Lund,  then  a  citizen  of  Mt.  Pleasant.  President  Lund  was  one  of  the 
original  operators  on  the  first  circuit. 


BISHOP- TUTTLE. 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  207 

dred.  They  were  "nearly  all  traders,"  and  had  "established  a 
church,  a  newspaper,  and  a  school."  The  newspaper,  of  course, 
was  the  Union  Vedette;  and  the  church,  that  of  the  Congrega- 
tionalists,  who  had  begun  to  hold  meetings  at  Salt  Lake  City 
early  in  1865.  Their  minister  was  Chaplain  McLeod.  Prior 
to  that  time,  the  only  religious  body  in  the  Territory,  barring 
a  few  dissenting  "Mormon"  factions,  such  as  the  "Morrisites" 
and  the  "Gladdenites,"  was  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  The  Congregational  Society  built  Inde- 
pendence Hall,  at  the  intersection  of  Main  and  Third  South 
Streets.  Two  years  later  the  Episcopal  Church  made  a  mis- 
sionary district  of  Utah,  Idaho  and  Montana,  and  placed 
Bishop  Daniel  S.  Tuttle  in  charge  of  the  diocese.  Bishop  Tut- 
tle  held  his  first  service  in  Independence  Hall. 

"Mormons"  and  Anti-" Mormons." — The  unfriendly  feel- 
ing between  the  first  settlers  of  Utah  and  a  certain  portion 
of  the  non-"Mormon"  element  that  came  among  them, — a 
feeling  that  had  been  growing  from  the  time  of  the 
formation  of  the  Territory — was  increased  and  intensified, 
about  midway  of  the  "sixties,"  by  two  shocking  crimes,  both 
committed  at  Salt  Lake  City.  Of  a  nature  to  stir  the  com- 
munity under  the  most  ordinary  conditions,  these  deplorable 
events  were  productive  of  more  than  usual  excitement,  owing 
to  their  supposed  connection,  in  some  minds,  with  the  alleged 
policy  on  the  part  of  the  "Mormons,"  to  drive  the  "Gen- 
tiles" out  of  Utah,  and  discourage  any  of  that  class  from  mak- 
ing homes  here.  Of  course  there  never  was  such  a  policy. 
Every  "Gentile"  comer-  into  the  community  was  a  hoped  for 
convert  to  "Mormonism,"  which  continually  sent  out  mission- 
aries, as  it  does  today,  with  a  view  to  drawing  the  "Gentiles" 
Zionward.  A  compelled  "Gentile"  exodus  was  never  dreamed 
of  by  the  "Mormon"  people.  But  this  fact  did  not  prevent  the 
fiction  from  obtaining  credence  in  certain  quarters,  and  con- 
siderable ill  feeling  was  the  result.  The  crimes  referred  to 
took  place,  one  in  the  spring,  the  other  in  the  autumn,  of 
1866.  They  are  known  as  the  Brassfield  and  Robinson  mur- 
ders. 

The  Brassfield  Affair. — S.  Newton  Brassfield,  a  freighter 
from  Austin,  Nevada,  while  doing  business  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
induced  Mrs.  Mary  Emma  Hill,  the  plural  wife  of  a  "Mormon" 
missionary  then  in  Europe,  to  abandon  her  spouse  and  accept 
him  (Brassfield)  as  her  husband.  The  ceremony  uniting  them 
was  performed  by  Judge  Solomon  P.  McCurdy,  formerly  of 
Missouri,  but  at  that  time  an  Associate  Justice  of  Utah.  Legal 
proceedings  to  secure  the  woman's  children  and  household 
property  were  pending,  when,  in  the  twilight  of  an  April 
evening,  as  Brassfield  was  about  entering  his  boarding  house, 


208      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

a  little  east  of  "Godbe's  Corner,"  he  was  fatally  shot  by  an  un- 
known assailant,  who  fired  from  a  neighboring  alley.  Brass- 
field  was  walking  in  company  with  United  States  Marshal  J.  K. 
Hosmer.  There  was  no  clue  to  the  doer  of  the  deed,  though 
suspicion  naturally  pointed  to  some  relative  or  friend  of  the 
absent  husband. 

General  Sherman's  Telegram. — As  in  the  case  of  other 
crimes  committed  by  individuals  in  Utah,  an  effort  was  made 
to  place  the  blame  for  this  homicide  upon  the  "Mormon"  com- 
munity. Exaggerated  reports  were  sent  out,  and  as  a  result 
General  William  T.  Sherman,  then  commanding  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Plains,  with  headquarters  at  St.  Louis,  wired  to 
President  Young,  stating  that  a  telegram  from  "responsible 
officers"  informed  him  that  four  "Gentiles"  had  been  murdered 
by  "Mormons,"  and  that  further  danger  was  apprehended  from 
this  class.  The  General  added  that  he  was  bound  to  give  pro- 
tection to  all  citizens,  and  that  all  must  have  equal  rights 
within  the  limits  of  the  national  domain.  The  murderers  must 
be  punished,  and  measures  of  intimidation,  if  resorted  to,  must 
cease.  Sherman  admitted  that  he  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the 
causes  of  trouble  in  this  Territory,  but  went  on  to  say  that  the 
country  was  full  of  tried  and  experienced  soldiers  who  would 
be  pleased  to  "avenge  any  wrongs  committed  against  any 
American  citizens  even  in  remote  Utah."  He  expressed  the 
.hope  that  he  would  receive  reports  upon  which  to  base  accurate 
opinions ;  and  meanwhile  this  message  was  sent,  "not  as  a 
threat,  but  as  a  caution  that  a  sensible  man  should  heed."  The 
date  of  the  telegram  was  the  10th  of  April. 

President  Young's  Reply. — President  Young  replied, 
thanking  General  Sherman  for  his  communication,  which 
afforded  him  an  opportunity  to  state  the  facts.  He  informed 
the  General  that  there  had  been  no  such  assassinations  as  those 
mentioned  in  his  communication.  A  soldier  had  shot  a  gen- 
tleman named  Mayfield  on  March  17th,  and  a  Mr.  Brassfield, 
who  had  seduced  a  "Mormon's"  wife,  had  been  shot  on  the 
street  by  some  unknown  person.  "But  neither  I  nor  the  com- 
munity at  large  know  any  more  about  it  than  an  inhabitant  of 
St.  Louis,"  said  the  President.  He  denied  the  intimidation 
charges,  and  declared  that  in  Utah  "Gentile"  lives  were  as  safe 
as  "Mormon"  lives,  and  that  acts  of  violence  were  of  rarer 
occurrence  in  Salt  Lake  City  than  in  any  other  town  of  its  size 
in  any  of  the  new  States  or  Territories.  He  clinched  this  state- 
ment with  another,  to  wit :  "In  no  other  communities  could 
men  pursue  the  course  that  many  do  here,  without  experiencing 
the  vengeance  of  a  vigilance  committee.  The  outrageous  slan- 
ders they  have  circulated  against  us  would  have  provoked  such 
an  outbreak  elsewhere." 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  209 

"Gentile"  Confirmation. — Another  telegram,  signed  by 
"Gentile"  residents  of  Salt  Lake  City,  gave  a  complete  refuta- 
tion to  the  original  charges.  It  certified  that  citizens  of  every 
class  who  simply  attended  to  their  own  business,  were  as  free 
from  intimidation  and  as  fully  respected  in  their  rights  in  this 
city,  as  in  any  other  part  of  the  United  States.  Among  those 
who  signed  the  telegram  were  the  Walker  Brothers,  John  B. 
Kimball,  Nounnan,  Orr  and  Company,  and  other  leading  busi- 
ness men.  Colonel  Head,  Indian  Superintendent,  and  several 
Camp  Douglas  officers,  also  appended  their  signatures. 

General  §herman  answered  President  Young  in  these 
words:  "Your  dispatch  is  received,  and  I  am  much  gratified 
at  its  substance  and  spirit."  This  closed  the  incident.  At  the 
request  of  General  Sherman,  however,  General  Babcock,  while 
making  the  tour  of  inspection  referred  to,  spent  several  weeks 
in  Utah,  thoroughly  acquainting  himself  with  conditions  in  this 
Territory.* 

The  Robinson  Murder. — The  excitement  over  the  Brass- 
field  homicide  scarcely  had  time  to  die  away,  before  the 
other  killing  took  place.  The  date  was  the  22nd  of  October, 
and  the  victim,  Dr.  J.  King  Robinson,  a  former  assistant  sur- 
geon at  Camp  Douglas.  Dr.  Robinson  had  married  a  Utah 
girl,  a  daughter  of  Elder  John  Kay,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death 
was  practicing  his  profession  at  Salt  Lake  City.  In  the  case 
of  Brassfield  it  was  generally  felt  that  there  had  been  a  serious 
provocation,  and  that  the  Nevada  freighter  had  done  much  to 
merit  what  had  befallen  him.  But  there  was  no  such  element 
of  palliation  in  the  Robinson  case.  The  bloody  deed  shocked 
and  horrified  the  whole  community.  All  classes  united  in  de- 
ploring it,  and  in  denouncing  its  dastardly  perpetrators. f 

The  murder  occurred  a  little  before  midnight.  Summoned 
from  his  bed,  ostensibly  to  care  for  a  man  with  a  broken  limb, 
the  surgeon  was  but  a  few  rods  from  his  residence,  near  Inde- 

*"A  more  quiet  or  peaceful  community,"  said  General  Babcock,  in 
his  report  to  the  War  Department,  "I  never  passed  four  weeks  with." 
He  commended  the  people  for  their  thrift  and  industry,  and  while  of 
the  opinion  that  the  "Mormons"  had  looked  upon  the  Government  as 
their  persecutor,  and  for  that  reason  had  felt  little  sympathy  with  it 
during  the  Civil  War,  he  expressed  the  belief  that  had  they  been  called 
upon  for  a  quota  of  troops,  it  would  have  been  filled  with  as  much 
promptness  as  any  call  that  was  made.  The  report,  having  been  sub- 
mitted to  Secretary  Stanton,  was  laid  before  Congress  in  January,  1867. 

tSaid  the  Deseret  News:  "There  are  acts  which  demand  the  ex- 
piation of  blood,  and  this  is  one  of  them."  That  paper  urged  the 
officers  to  spare  no  efforts  to  bring  the  criminal  or  criminals  to  justice. 
President  Young,  in  a  public  discourse,  compared  the  murder  of  Dr. 
Robinson  to  the  massacre  at  Haun's  Mill,  the  assassination  of  Joseph 
and  Hyrum  Smith,  and  the  Mountain  Meadows  Massacre.  He  de- 
nounced it  in  unmeasured  terms. 

13 


210      WHITNEY'S  I'Ol'L'LAU  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

pendence  Hall,  when  he  was  set  upon  by  several  persons  who, 
after  striking  him  on  the  head  with  some  sharp  instrument,  put 
a  bullet  through  his  brain,  and  hastily  fled,  disappearing  before 
anyone  else  could  arrive  upon  the  scene.  The  first  comers  saw 
a  number  of  men  running  away,  but  darkness  prevented  recog- 
nition. Dr.  Robinson,  in  a  dying  condition,  was  taken  to  his 
home,  where  he  expired  an  hour  afterwards. 

A  Fruitless  Investigation. — Rewards  for  the  discovery  and 
apprehension  of  the  guilty  parties  were  offered  by  the  City, 
the  County,  and  by  various  prominent  citizens  and  business 
firms;  President  Young  heading  the  list  with  an  offer  of  five 
hundred  dollars.  The  various  amounts  aggregated  about  ten 
thousand  dollars.  Then  followed  a  searching  investigation  be- 
fore Coroner  Jeter  Clinton,  assisted  by  Chief  Justice  Titus  and 
Associate  Justice  McCurdy.  The  examination  was  conducted 
by  County  Prosecuting  Attorney  Seth  M.  Blair,  associated  with 
Major  Charles  H.  Hempstead  and  City  Attorney  Hosea  Stout. 
Ex-Governor  John  B.  Weller,  of  California,  was  specially  re- 
tained for  the  case,  and  Thomas  Marshall,  of  the  Utah  Bar, 
also  lent  assistance. 

Governor  Weller,  following  the  usual  "Anti-Mormon" 
course,  endeavored  to  implicate  the  "Mormon"  Church  and  the 
Salt  Lake  City  Police  Department.  He  cited,  as  a  probable 
cause  for  the  tragedy,  certain  litigation  between  Dr.  Robinson 
and  the  municipal  authorities.  It  is  true  that  the  Doctor  had 
been  involved  in  a  legal  contest  with  those  authorities,  for  the 
possession  of  the  Warm  Springs  property,  a  piece  of  ground 
built  upon  and  owned  by  the  City  for  many  years,  but  claimed 
by  the  surgeon  and  a  fellow  practitioner  as  "unoccupied  land," 
a  portion  of  the  public  domain.  They  designed  erecting  a 
hospital  there.  Their  claim  to  the  property  was  based  upon 
the  alleged  invalidity  of  the  new  City  Charter,  which  they  had 
been  made  to  believe  was  defective  because  it  did  not  appear 
from  the  Congressional  records  that  the  acts  of  the  Utah  Leg- 
islature for  1859-1860,  containing  the  charter,  had  been  sub- 
mitted to  Congress,  as  required  by  the  Organic  Act.  The  liti- 
gation followed  the  removal,  by  the  police,  of  a  shanty  and  a 
fence  which  the  two  surgeons  had  caused  to  be  built  upon  the 
land,  in  assertion  of  their  claim.  But  the  case  went  against 
them  in  the  District  Court;  Chief  Justice  Titus,  before  whom  it 
was  tried,  ruling  in  favor  of  the  City.  Three  days  later  Dr. 
Robinson  met  his  death.* 


*A  bowling  alley,  owned  by  Dr.  Robinson,  and  complained  of  as 
a  place  where  gambling  was  carried  on,  and  liquor  sold  contrary  to 
law,  had  also  been  abated  by  the  police;  and  it  was  alleged  that  the 
Mayor  of  the  City,  when  the  Doctor  called  upon  him  and  threatened 
a  suit  for  damages,  had  ordered  him  out  of  his  house. 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  211 

Judge  Stout,  replying  to  Governor  Weller,  resented  the 
imputation  that  the  litigation  over  the  Warm  Springs,  or  any 
incident  connected  therewith,  had  led  to  the  murder  of  the 
unfortunate  man.  He  maintained  that  such  a  theory  was  not 
only  unjust,  but  illogical  and  inconsistent,  in  view  of  the  out- 
come of  that  litigation.  He  also  defended  the  Church  Author- 
ities against  the  aspersions  cast  upon  them.  As  in  the  Brass- 
field  affair,  there  was  no  clue  to  the  identity  of  the  assassins, 
and  the  coroner's  jury,  made  up  of  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles," 
rendered  a  verdict  to  that  effect. 

President  Young  Calls  for  Proof. — The  intimation  that 
the  Church  leaders  were  responsible  for  this  crime  called  forth 
a  reply  from  President  Young.  In  a  public  discourse  (Decem- 
ber, 1866)  he  challenged  production  of  proof  that  he  was  in  any 
manner  implicated,  and  clinched  the  challenge  with  this  declar- 
ation :  "If  any  man,  woman  or  child  that  ever  lived  has  said 
that  Brigham  Young  ever  counseled  them  to  commit  crime  of 
any  description,  they  are  liars  in  the  face  of  heaven." 

An  Unsolved  Mystery. — The  slayers  of  Dr.  Robinson  were 
never  discovered.  Persons  suspected  of  the  murder  were  ar- 
rested, but  nothing  was  proved  against  them.  The  motive  for 
the  crime  was  as  much  involved  in  mystery  as  the  identity  of 
its  perpetrators.  The  charge  against  the  Church —  if  it  amount- 
ed to  a  charge — fell  flat.  Aside  from  all  moral  considerations, 
it  was  evident  that  the  Church  had  nothing  to  gain  by  the  death 
of  Dr.  Robinson.  Nor  did  it  advantage  in  any  way  the  City 
Authorities.  The  murder  was  a  positive  misfortune  to  the 
"Mormon"  community. 

The  Stenhouse  Theory.— The  author  of  "The  Rocky 
Mountain  Saints"  (page  618)  says :  "It  has  always  appeared 
to  the  author's  mind  that  the  Robinson  murder  was  an  acci- 
dent, and  not  premeditated.  *  *  *  It  is  very  probable  that 
the  party  attacking  Dr.  Robinson  designed  only  to  give  him  a 
beating  and  some  rough  usage.  He  was  a  young  athletic  man, 
and  when  he  first  discovered  so  many  men  of  evil  purpose  he 
very  likely  became  alarmed,  and  in  seeking  to  disengage  him- 
self from  them,  probably  recognized  some  of  them,  and  for  their 
own  protection  and  concealment  the  fatal  violence  was  re- 
sorted to." 

Whether  or  not  that  theory  be  correct,  this  much  is  certain: 
If  the  guilty  ones  supposed  that  their  act  would  be  approved 
by  any  class  of  people,  they  were  doomed  to- disappointment. 
Like  the  murderers  of  Pompey,  who  vainly  imagined  that  the 
great  Caesar  would  reward  them  for  slaying  his  already  de- 
feated rival,  they  "reckoned  without  their  host."  The  Egyptian 


212      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

assassins  were  ordered  away  to  instant  execution :  and  by  the 
same  spirit  of  indignant  justice  the  unknown  murderers  of  Dr. 
Robinson  have  been  pilloried  for  execration  through  all  time. 

Cases  of  Land- Jumping. — Mr.  Stenhouse,  in  connection 
with  his  theory  of  the  homicide — a  theory  published  after  his 
defection  from  "Mormonism"— mentions  various  cases  of  land- 
jumping,  which  had  caused  the  forcible  ejectment  of  certain 
parties,  some  of  whom  had  taken  possession  of  the  race  course 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Jordan,  while  others  had  seized  a  choice 
piece  of  real  estate  on  the  east  side,  claiming  them  as  "un- 
occupied lands."  The  would-be  owners  of  the  race  course 
were  thrown,  with  their  shanty,  into  the  river  one  night;  and 
the  squatters  upon  the  other  property — Lieutenant  Brown  and 
Dr.  Williamson,  formerly  of  the  California  Volunteers — saved 
themselves  from  similar  treatment  by  promising  to  leave  the 
country  forthwith.  Mr.  Stenhouse  does  not  assert  who  the 
attacking  parties  were,  but  leaves  it  to  be  inferred  that  they 
were  men  of  the  same  stamp  as  those  who  assailed  Dr.  Rob- 
inson.* 

A  Proposed  "Gentile"  Exodus. — As  previously  stated,  the 
Brassfield  and  Robinson  murders  were  supposed  by  some  to 
indicate  a  settled  policy  on  the  part  of  the  "Mormons,"  to  dis- 
courage "Gentiles"  from  remaining  in  or  coming  to  Utah.  The 
fact  that  the  Church  Authorities  were  counseling  their  people 
to  refrain  from  patronizing  certain  non-"Mormon"  business 
houses,  was  pointed  to  as  proof  of  the  existence  of  such  a 

*President  Young  believed  these  land-jumping  operations  were  en- 
couraged, if  not  instigated,  by  certain  lawyers  who  had  recently  taken 
up  their  abode  in  Utah.  In  letters  to  his  sons  Brigham  Jr.,  and  John 
W.,  who  were  in  England  at  that  time  (1866),  he  refers  to  vexatious 
law  suits  and  land  seizures,  and  says:  "Attempts  have  been  made  to 
'squat'  upon  our  public  squares,  parade  ground,  race  course,  etc.,  and 
in  the  city  these  public  places  have  been  fenced  to  prevent  'squatters' 
from  settling  upon  them."  In  a  discourse  delivered  the  same  year, 
the  President  said:  "We  wish  our  friends  to  come  here,  and  par- 
ticipate with  us  in  the  good  things  the  Lord  has  provided  for  his 
people;  but  we  do  not  want  contention." 

Then  followed  strictures  on  a  certain  class  of  lawyers  and  their 
strife-breeding  methods,  after  which  this  comment:  "If  you  [the  new 
comers]  undertake  to  drive  a  stake  in  my  garden,  with  an  intention  to 
jump  my  claim,  there  will  be  a  fight  before  you  get  it.  You 

can  occupy  and  build  wherever  you  please,  but  let  our  claims  alone. 
We  have  spent  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  taking  out  the 
waters  of  the  mountain  streams,  fencing  in  farms,  and  improving  the 
country,  and  we  cannot  tamely  suffer  strangers,  who  have  not  spent 
one  day's  labor  to  make  these  improvements,  to  wrest  our  homesteads 
out  of  bur  hands."  The  Union  Vedette  defended  the  seizure  of  certain 
lands  owned  by  the  City,  on  the  plea  that  they  were  not  occupied  or 
put  to  use  by  those  who  held  them. 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  213 

policy.  In  a  communication  addressed  to  the  "Mormon"  lead- 
ers (December,  1866)  twenty-three  "Gentile"  merchants  offered 
to  leave  the  Territory,  on  condition  that  the  Church  would 
guarantee  the  payment  of  their  outstanding  accounts,  and  the 
purchase  of  their  merchandise,  chattels,  houses,  and  improve- 
ments, at  a  cash  valuation,  after  a  deduction  of  twenty-five  per 
cent  had  been  made. 

President  Young  declined  to  enter  into  any  such  agree- 
ment. Answering  the  communication,  he  stated  that  its  signers 
were  at  liberty  to  go  or  stay,  just  as  they  pleased.  He  denied 
using  coercion  or  intimidation  to  induce  his  people  to  trade  or 
not  trade  with  any  person  or  class,  but  asserted  his  right  and 
theirs  to  patronize  the  business  houses  they  preferred.  The 
President  made  it  plain  that  the  proposed  boycott  was  not 
against  the  "Gentiles"  as  "Gentiles,"  nor  against  non-"Mor- 
mon"  business  men  in  general ;  but  only  against  a  certain  class 
—those  believed  by  him  to  be  in  league  against  the  Latter-day 
Saints.  Strife-breeders,  law-breakers,  and  those  who  encour- 
aged them  in  their  arrogant  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  older 
settlers  who  had  pioneered  the  country  and  made  it  possible  for 
later  comers  to  live  here ;  it  was  against  such  persons  that  the 
"Mormon"  leader  leveled  the  boycott  of  1865-1866.* 

Another  Grasshopper  Scourge. — During  the  year  1867 
there  was  another  grasshopper  visitation.  The  locusts  came 
in  countless  swarms,  so  dense  as  to  almost  darken  the  sun. 
With  relentless  appetite  they  settled  down  upon  ripening  fields, 
budding  orchards,  and  green  meadows,  stripping  the  trees  of 
leaves,  eating  the  tender  bark  of  twigs,  and  even  devouring 
each  other.  To  the  depth  of  an  inch  or  more,  they  carpeted 
the  streets,  sidewalks,  and  door-yards,  biting  savagely  what- 

*"To  be  adverse  to  Gentiles  because  they  are  Gentiles,  or  to  Jews 
because  they  are  Jews,"  said  President  Young,  "is  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  genius  of  our  religion.  There  'is  a  class,  however,  doing  busi- 
ness in  this  Territory,  who  for  years  have  been  the  avowed  enemies 
of  this  community.  *  *  *  While  soliciting  the  patronage  of  the 
people  and  deriving  their  support  from  them,  they  have  in  the  most 
shameless  and  abandoned  manner  used  the  means  thus  obtained  to 
destroy  the  very  people  whose  favor  they  found  it  to  their  interest  to 
court."  He  charged  this  class  with  encouraging  violations  of  law,  and 
with  fostering  vicious  institutions;  with  giving  publicity  to  atrocious 
libels  respecting  the  old  citizens;  with  refusing  to  pay  their  taxes  or 
give  support  to  schools  as  required  by  law;  and  with  entering  into 
secret  combinations  to  resist  the  laws  and  thwart  their  healthy  opera- 
tion. "What  claim,"  said  he,  "can  such  persons  have  upon  the. patron- 
age of  this  community?  And  what  community  on  earth  would  be  so 
besotted  as  to  uphold  and  foster  men  whose  aim  is  to  destroy  them? 
*  *  *  Tt  is  to  these  men  whom  T  have  described,  and  to  these  alone, 
that  1  am  opposed,  and  I  am  determined  to  use  my  influence  to  have 
the  citizens  here  stop  dealing  with  them,  and  deal  with  honorable 
men." 


J14   ,   WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

whatever  they  chanced  to  light  upon.  Human  beings  were 
not  exempt  from  attack.  Great  damage  was  done  by  them  to 
crops  and  vegetation  throughout  the  Territory.* 

A  Notable  Conference. — The  General   Conference  of  the 


SALT  LAKE  TABERNACLE. 

Showing  the   historic   Endowment   House   in   the   right   hand   corner   of   the   Temple 

Block,  with  the  homes  of  Orson  Hyde  (right)   and  Albert 

Carrington  (left)   in  the  foreground. 

Latter-day  Saints  in  October,  1867,  was  notable  for  the  calling 
of  a  large  number  of  missionaries,  to  go  with  their  families  and 
strengthen  the  southern  settlements.  Another  feature  of  the 
occasion  was  the  calling  of  Joseph  F.  Smith  into  the  Council 
of  the  Twelve,  to  fill  a  vacancy  caused  by  the  defection  of 
Amasa  M.  Lyman.  Elder  Smith  is  now  President  Smith, 
holding  the  highest  office  in  the  Church.  These  proceedings 
took  place  in  the  great  Tabernacle,  which,  begun  in  July,  1864, 
was  all  but  completed  when  this  conference  convened. 

Tabernacle  and  Organ. — The  "Mormon"  Tabernacle  at 
Salt  Lake  City  is  one  of  the  notable  buildings  of  America.  It 
is  a  vast  elliptical  dome,  resting  upon  forty-four  buttresses  of 
solid  masonry.  Twenty  large  double  doors,  opening  outward, 
afford  speedy  egress  from  the  building,  which  is  250  feet  long, 
150  feet  wide,  and  80  feet  high.  The  concave  ceiling,  seventy 

*This  visitation  was  one  of  a  series  extending  through  successive 
years,  during  which  the  people  waged  organized  warfare  upon  the 
locusts.  Tn  1869  only  Cache,  Iron,  Washington  and  Kane  counties 
suffered  severely;  other  parts  escaping  the  scourge  and  gathering 
abundant  harvests. 


LATER  IN  THE  SIXTIES.  215 

feet  from  the  floor,  is  arched  without  a  pillar.  The  seating 
capacity  is  seven  or  eight  thousand,  but  ten  thousand  persons 
can  crowd  into  the  interior,  which  has  a  horse-shoe  gallery  ter- 
minating at  the  choir  in  front  of  the  great  organ.  The  acous- 
tics are  a  marvel ;  a  pin  dropped  at  one  end  of  the  hall  can  be 
heard  distinctly  at  the  other  end,  over  two  hundred  feet  away. 
The  Tabernacle  Organ,  when  built,  was  the  largest  pipe  organ 
in  America.  In  some  respects — variety  of  construction  and  the 
massing  of  tonal  qualities — it  is  still  conceded  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  instruments  of  its  kind  in  existence.* 

*The  Tabernacle  Organ  was  designed  and  built  by  Joseph  Ridges, 
of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  was  constructed  of  native  timber.  It  has  since 
been  enlarged  and  improved.  The  Tabernacle  was  designed  in  a  gen- 
eral way  by  President  Brigham  Young,  but  under  him  Henry  Grow 
was  the  architect  and  superintendent  of  construction. 


XIX. 
THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT. 

1868-1871. 

The  Iron  Horse  Approaching. — The  all-prevailing  topic 
at  the  time  now  touched  in  this  narrative,  was  the  coming  of 
the  railroad.  Since  January,  1863,  the  great  iron  highway, 
which  was  destined  to  work  so  many  changes  in  the  West, 
had  been  in  course  of  construction,  and  was  rapidly  approach- 
ing from  two  directions  the  Valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 
Utah,  joining  California  and  the  East,  was  about  to  take  hold 
of  the  mighty  enterprise,  and  help  it  across  the  borders  of  her 
mountain-girt  domain. 

The  Act  of  Congress  authorizing  the  Pacific  Railroad  had 
been  signed  by  President  Lincoln  on  the  1st  of  July,  1862.  The 
Government  of  the  United  States  proposed  by  this  legislation 
to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  from 
the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  secure  to  itself 
the  use  of  the  same  for  postal,  military,  and  other  purposes. 
The  assistance  offered  to  the  builders  of  the  road  was  a  loan  of 
Federal  bonds  for  thirty  years,  and  a  gift  of  twenty  million 
acres  of  land.  Each  bond  was  for  a  thousand  dollars,  and  six- 
teen bonds  were  to  be  lent  for  each  mile  completed.  The  land 
to  be  given  was  on  each  side  of  the  proposed  railroad.  Sub- 
sequently Congress  offered  still  greater  inducements,  and 
enough  private  capital  was  finally  invested  to  carry  forward 
the  titanic  work.* 

*A  railroad  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  had  been  discussed 
early  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  but  not  until  about,  the  middle  of 
that  period  was  any  practical  scheme  for  its  construction  put  forward. 
Asa  Whitney,  in  a  series  of  popular  meetings  and  in  addresses  to  State 
Legislatures,  agitated  the  question  from  1844  to  1850.  By  that  time 
there  were  railroads  reaching  almost  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi 
River.  The  idea  was  to  have  one  start  from  Prairie  due  Chien,  and 
cross  the  Rocky  Mountains  at  South  Pass,  extending  on  to  Van- 
couver Sound,  with  a  branch  running  to  San  Francisco.  It  was  to 
be  built  by  the  sale  of  public  lands  along  the  proposed  line,  and  for 
that  purpose,  Whitney  asked  from  Congress  a  free  grant  of  alternate 
sections,  for  a  width  of  thirty  miles  on  each  side.  As  already  related, 
Brigham  Young,  at  the  head  of  the  "Mormon"  Pioneers,  while  as- 
cending the  Platte  River  in  1847,  marked  out  a  future  route  for  the 
trans-continental  railroad,  a  route  now  covered  by  much  of  the  track 
of  tfie  Union  Pacific.  Three  years  after  the  Pioneers  crossed  the 
plains,  Senator  Thomas  Benton,  of  Missouri,  introduced  into  Congress 
his  Pacific  Railroad  Bill.  In  March,  1852,  the  Governor  and  Legis- 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  217 

Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific. — The  Act  of  1862  cre- 
ated the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  which  built  the  line 
westward  from  Omaha;  that  point  having  been  designated 
by  President  Lincoln  as  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  great 
highway.  The  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company, which  was  al- 
ready in  existence,  constructed  the  western  division  and  shared 
in  the  advantages  of  the  Government  contract.  This  com- 
pany had  been  organized  in  1861,  under  a  general  law  of  the 
State  of  California. 

At  Sacramento,  on  January  8,  1863,  and  at  Omaha,  on 
December  2nd  of  the  same  year,  ground  was  broken  for  the 
gigantic  enterprise.  Later  there  was  some  discouragement  and 
delay,  but  after  the  increase  of  the  subsidy  granted  by  the 
Government  the  work  made  rapid  strides  to  completion.  Prob- 
ably twenty-five  thousand  men,  with  six  thousand  teams, 
were  employed  on  the  Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  lines, 
as  they  advanced  to  meet  each  other  on  the  shores  of  "Amer- 
ica's Dead  Sea." 

Stupendous  efforts  were  put  forth  by  the  competing  com- 
panies to  determine  how  far  east  or  west  of  the  Great  Salt 
Lake  each  would  be  able  to  extend  its  track  before  meeting 
that  of  the  rival  road ;  the  aim  being,  of  course,  to  secure  as 
large  a  share  as  possible  of  the  Government  subsidy.  It 
therefore  became  an  object  to  secure  assistance  from  the  peo- 
ple of  Utah.  The  question  as  to  whether  the  railroad  would 
pass  north  or  south  of  the  Lake  was  also  an  important  one, 
especially  to  Salt  Lake  City.  Here,  on  the  10th  of  June, 
1868,  a  mass  meeting  was  held  in  the  big  Tabernacle,  with  a 
view  to  influencing  the  choice  of  the  southern  route  and  the 
building  of  the  line  through  the  Territorial  capital.  The  de- 
cision of  the  engineers,  however,  was  in  favor  of  the  northern 
route,  and  the  railroad  went  that  way. 

Utah  Contracts  and  Contractors. — President  Young,  who 
was  a  stockholder  in  the  Union  Pacific  Company,  accepted 
from  its  Superintendent  of  Construction  a  contract  to  grade 
ninety  miles  of  road  from  the  head  of  Echo  Canyon  westward. 
Three  of  the  President's  sons — Joseph  A.,  Brigham,  Jr.,  and 
John  W. — acted  as  his  agents  in  letting  the  sub-contracts. 


lature  of  the  Territory  of  Utah  petitioned  Congress  for  the  construc- 
tion of  such  a  road.  During  1853-1854  as  many  as  nine  railroad  routes 
were  surveyed  across  the  continent,  one  of  them  by  the  ifl-fated 
Captain  Gunnison.  These  surveys  were  authorized  by  the  Federal 
Government.  The  National  Conventions  of  the  Democratic  and  Re- 
publican parties,  in  1856  and  I860,  referred  to  the  Pacific  Railroad 
in  their  platforms,  and  Presidents  Pierce,  Buchanan  and  Lincoln  all 
mentioned  it  in  their  messages  to  Congiess. 


218      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The    main    contractors    under    Brigham    Young:    were   John 

Sharp  and  Joseph  A.  Young, 
who  employed  five  or  six  hun- 
dred men  on  the  heavy  stone 
work  and.  tunnels  of  Weber 
Canyon. 

Eastward  from  Echo  Can- 
yon a  large  contract  was  taken 
by  Joseph  F.  Nounnan  and  as- 
sociates. Mr.  Nounnan  was  a 
"Gentile"  banker  at  Salt  Lake 
City.  From  him  the  Kimball 
Brothers,  David  and  Heber,  and 
W.  Riley  Judd,  took  sub-con- 
tracts and  built  parts  of  the 
grade  along  Sulphur  Creek, 
Yellow  Creek,  and  Bear  River. 
The  writer  of  this  History, 
then  a  lad  of  thirteen,  worked 
for  his  uncle,  David  P.  Kimball, 
on  one  of  those  sub-con- 
tracts. 

The  one  great  Central  Pa- 
cific  contract  taken  by  Utah 

men,  was  that  of  Ezra  T.  Benson,  Lorin  Farr,  and  Chauncey 
W.  West,  who  constructed  the  road-bed  from  near  Hum  bold  t 
Wells,  Nevada,  into  Ogden  City,  a  distance  of  two  hundred 
miles.  Fifty-three  miles  of  their  work — the  part  extending 
from  Promontory  to  Ogden — was  never  used,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  Union  Pacific  reached  Ogden  first  and  pushed 
on  to  Promontory,  paralleling  the  Central  Pacific  between 
those  points.  When  Ogden  became,  by  Act  of  Congress,  the 
joint  terminus,  the  Central  Pacific  purchased  from  the 
Union  Pacific  its  section  of  track,  and  abandoned  the  super- 
fluous grade  built  by  itself. 

The  Arrival  at  Ogden.— The  arrival  of  the  railroad  at 
Ogden,  March  8,  1869,  caused  a  general  jubilation.  It  was 
about  half  past  eleven  a.  m.  when  the  Union  Pacific  track- 
layers came  in  sight  of  the  town,  whose  excited  inhabitants, 
from  every  house-top  or  other  commanding  elevation,  feasted 
their  eyes  upon  the  long-looked-for  "fiery  steed."  On  it  came, 
the  workmen  in  front,  putting  down  the  rails,  and  the  loco- 
motives steaming  up  behind  as  fast  as  the  iron  path  was  pre- 
pared for  them.  Three  hours  later  the  city  was  reached,  and 
there,  amid  raising  of  flags,  music  of  bands,  shouts  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  thunder  of  artillery,  the  advent  of  the  railroad  was 
celebrated  with  joyful  enthusiasm.  ''Hail  to  the  Highway 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  219 

of  Nations!  Utah  bids  you  welcome!"  was  one  of  the  mot- 
toes conspicuously  displayed  in  the  official  and  popular  gath- 
ering that  greeted  the  arrival  of  "The  Iron  Horse." 

The  Meeting  at  Promontory. — The  greater  event  of  the 
meeting  of  the  two  roads  was  reserved  for  Monday,  the  10th 
of  May.  At  Promontory  Summit,  on  the  northern  shore  of 
the  Great  Salt  Lake,  690  miles  east  of  Sacramento,  and  1086 
miles  west  from  Omaha,  the  last  rail  was  laid,  the  last  spike 
driven,  and  both  tracks  were  welded  into  one.  A  junction  had 
been  effected  a  short  time  before,  but  the  laying  of  two  rails 
had  been  left  for  the  final  proceedings.  Trains  from  both 
East  and  West  brought  leading  railroad  men  and  newspaper 
representatives  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  by  noon 
eleven  hundred  people  had  assembled  at  Promontory.  The 
Chinese  laborers  on  the  western  division  having  with  picks  and 
shovels  leveled  the  road-bed,  the  last  ties  and  rails  were 
put  in  place — all  but  one  rail.  Union  Pacific  locomotive  Num- 
ber 119,  and  Central  Pacific  locomotive  "Jupiter,"  then  moved 
up  face  to  face,  within  thirty  feet  of  each  other,  and  all  was 
ready  for  the  closing  scene  of  this  memorable  act  in  the 
mighty  drama  of  modern  development. 

Edgar  Mills,  of  Sacramento,  read  the  program  of  cere- 
monies, and  Reverend  Dr.  Todd,  who  was  from  Massachusetts, 
offered  the  dedicatory  prayer.  Then  came  the  presentation 
of  spikes — one  of  gold  from  California,  one  of  silver  from  Ne- 
vada, and  one  of  iron,  silver  and  gold  from  Arizona;  all  pre- 
sented, with  suitable  speeches,  to  Governor  Leland  Stanford, 
President  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad.  He  received  the 
gifts  in  behalf  of  both  companies,  and  responded  with  an  ap- 
propriate address;  after  which  General  Superintendent  G.  M. 
Dodge  spoke  briefly,  representing  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 
The  Last  Spike  Driven. — The  last  tie  upon  which  the 
rails  of  the  two  roads  met  was  put  in  position  by  the  Super- 
intendents of  Construction,  S.  B.  Reed  of  the  Union  Pacific, 
and  J.  H.  Strowbridge  of  the  Central  Pacific.  This  tie  was  of 
California  laurel,  beautifully  polished,  and  ornamented  with 
a  silver  plate  bearing  the  names  of  the  officers  and  directors 
of  the  Central  Pacific  Company.  The  gold  spike  used  in  the 
ceremony  was  seven  inches  long,  and  had  been  made  from 
twenty-three  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces,  the  gift  of  David  H. 
Herves,  of  San  Francisco.  Of  course,  none  of  these  valuable 
spikes  went  into  the  road.  They  were  preserved  as  relics, 
like  the  silver-plated  tie,  which  was  removed  as  soon  as 
laid,  and  an  ordinary  tie  substituted.  It  was  now  half  past 
twelve,  and  at  a  given  signal  Governor  Stanford  and  Dr.  T. 
C.  Durant,  .a  Union  Pacific  notable,  struck  the  spikes  and 
drove  them  home. 


220      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

An  Electrical  Proclamation. — Telegraphic  connection  had 
been  made  in  such  a  way  that  these  blows  were  sent  vibrating 
along  the  wires  to  every  telegraph  office  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico. This  was  done  by  attaching  the  wires  to  the  spike  mauls, 
every  blow  from  which  announced  itself  as  it  fell.  At  San 
Francisco  the  wires  were  connected  with  the  fire  alarm  in  the 
Tower,  and  at  Washington  with  the  bell  of  the  Capitol ;  so 
that  the  strokes  of  the  silver  sledge  were  not  only  heard 
throughout  the  land,  but  were  sent  ringing  down  the  Potomac, 
and  out  through  the  Golden  Gate,  proclaiming  the  joyful  news 
of  the  marriage  of  the  oceans.  The  same  electric  flash  caused 
the  discharge  of  heavy  guns  from  the  batteries  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

Salt  Lake  City  received  the  tidings  at  thirty-two  minutes 
past  twelve.  Instantly  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  unfurled, 
brass  and  martial  bands  struck  up  lively  airs,  and  artillery 
salutes  were  fired  from  Arsenal  Hill  and  from  the  vicinity 


EAST   AND   WEST   SHAKE    HANDS. 

of  the  City  Hall  and  the  County  Court  House.*  A  half  holi- 
day of  general  rejoicing  followed.  All  towns  reached  by  the 
Deseret  Telegraph  were  notified  in  like  manner. 

*Arsenal  Hill,  so  named  for  the  old  militia  arsenal  that  once 
stood  there,  was  near  the  head  of  Main  Street,  the  principal  thor- 
oughfare of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  a  little  west  of  the  present  State 
Capitol.  The  old  City  Hall  has  bccoiiu-  the  Police  Department,  and 
the  old  County  Court  House  has  given  way  to  the  present  County 
Jail. 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  221 

East  and  West  Shake  Hands. — No  sooner  was  the  last 
spike  driven,  than  the  pent-up  feelings  of  the  multitude  wit- 
nessing the  ceremony  burst  forth  in  thunderous  hurrahs. 
Three  cheers  were  given  for  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  three  for  the  Pacific  Railroad,  three  for  the  Presidents, 
three  for  the  Star-Spangled  Banner,  three  for  the  laborers, 
and  three  for  those  who  had  furnished  the  means  to  build 
the  road.  Official  announcement  of  its  completion  was  tele- 
graphed to  President  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  and  to  the" Associated 
Press.  At  the  conclusion  of  proceedings  the  two  locomotives 
moved  forward  until  they  touched  each  other,  and  a  bottle 
of  wine  was  poured  as  a  libation  on  the  last  rail.  The  Pacific 
Railroad  was  completed! 

The  Utah  Central  and  Other  Local  Lines. — President 
Young,  being  in  Southern  Utah  at  the  time,  did  not  attend 
the  celebration  at  Promontory.  The  same  month,  however, 
saw  the  beginning,  under  his  direction,  of  the  first  local  rail- 
road, "The  Utah  Central,"  uniting  Salt  Lake  City  and  Ogden. 
At  the  Tabernacle  mass  meeting,  in  June,  1868,  the  "Mor- 
mon" leader  had  said :  "If  the  company  that  first  arrives 
should  deem  it  to  their  advantage  to  leave  us  out  in  the  cold, 
we  will  not  be  so  far  off  but  we  can  have  a  branch  line  for 
the  advantage  of  this  city."  When,  therefore,  it  became  evi- 
dent that  the  main  road  would  not  pass  through  the  principal 
town  of  the  Territory,  he  proceeded  to  make  good  his  prom- 
ise respecting  a  branch  line.  The  Utah  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany was  organized  on  the  very  day  that  the  Union  Pacific 
track  reached  Ogden.  Its  organizers  were  Brigham  Young, 
Joseph  A.  Young,  George  Q.  Cannon,  Daniel  H.  Wells,  Chris- 
topher Layton,  Briant  Stringham,  David  P.  Kimball,  Isaac 
Groo,  David  O.  Calder,  George  A.  Smith,  John  Sharp,  Brig- 
ham  Young,  Jr.,  John  W.  Young,  William  Jennings,  Fera- 
morz  Little  and  James  T.  Little ;  all  of  Salt  Lake  City  except 
Mr.  Layton,  who  lived  at  Kaysville.  Ground  was  broken  at 
Ogden,  May  17,  1869,  President  Young  removing  the  first 
sod;  and  the  last  spike  was  driven  by  him  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
January  10,  1870. 

This  road  was  built  literally  by  the  people.  No  large 
contracts  were  let,  and  those  who  constructed  the  road  took 
stock  in  it  for  part  of  their  remuneration.  Colonel  Carr,  a 
Union  Pacific  officer  who  was  present  at  the  January  celebra- 
tion, referred  to  the  Utah  Central  as  "perhaps  the  only  railroad 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  that  had  been  built  entirely 'with- 
out Government  subsidies."  In  all  probability  it  would  not 
have  been  built  so  early,  had  the  Union  Pacific  Company 
been  able  to  pay  its  Utah  contractors  more  promptly.  At 
the  final  settlement,  which  was  delayed  by  lack  of  funds,  the 
contractors  accepted,  in  lieu  of  the  same  amount  in  cash, six 


222      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


hundred  thousand  dollars  worth  of  rails,  locomotives,  cars 
and  other  rolling  stock.  All  this  property  went  into  the  home 
road,  hastening  its  construction  and  equipment. 

Joseph  A.  Young,  Superintendent  of  the  Utah  Central 
Railroad,  in  his  speech  at  the  driving  of  the  last  spike,  invited 
East,  West,  North  and  South  to  come  up  to  Utah  and  learn 
of  her  ways.  "The  more  our  actions  and  works  as  a  people 
are  investigated,"  said  he,  "the  higher  we  stand  in  the  esti- 
mation of  those  whose  good  opinion  is  worth  having."  He 
expressed  the  hope  that  the  last  spike  of  this  road  would  be 
the  first  of  the  next,  extending  on  to  "the  cotton  country"- 
Southern  Utah — and  that  he  would  live  to  see  the  day  when 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  Territory  capable  of  sustaining 

human  beings,  would  be- settled 
by  good,  honest,  hard-working 
people,  and  penetrated  by  rail- 
roads. 

The  Echo  and  Coalville 
Railroad  came  next.  It  was 
begun  in  October,  1869,  and 
pushed  rapidly  to  completion. 
By  the  time  the  Utah  Central 
reached  Salt  Lake  City,  coal 
from  the  Weber  mines  could  be 
shipped  by  rail  directly  to  the 
capital.  Then  came  the  Utah 
Southern,  connecting  Salt  Lake 
with  Provo  and  eventually  with 
Frisco;  followed  by  the  Utah 
Northern,  a  narrow  gauge  line 
from  Ogden  through  Weber, 
Box  Elder  and  Cache  counties; 
a  branch  of  it  joining  Brigham 
City  and  Corinne,  the  latter  a 
new  Central  Pacific  town  a  few 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  Bear 
River.  The  Utah  and  Nevada  Railway  ran  westward  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  skirting  the  southern  shore  of  the  Lake  and  turning 
southward  around  the  Oquirrh  Mountains.  Passing  through 
Tooele  Valley,  and  on  to  Rush  Valley,  it  fixed  its  terminus  at 
Stockton. 

Changes  in  General. — Many  changes  resulted  from  the 
construction  of  the  great  continental  highway.  Utah  entered 
upon  a  new  era.  Her  days  of  isolation  were  past.  Tourists 
from  East  or  West  rarely  failed  to  spend  some  time  in  "The 
Mormon  Territory,"  to  see  the  much  talked  of  people,  to  sur- 
vey their  works,  and  study  their  institutions.  Railroad  and 
telegraph  systems  threw  a  net-work  of  steel  and  electricity 


JOSEPH  A.   YOUNG. 


Til  1C  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  223 

over  a  region  formerly  traversed  by  the  slow-going  ox  team 
and  the  lumbering  stage  coach.  Industry  revived,  values  rose, 
and  mining  at  length  became  profitable.  With  the  inflow  of 
capital  and  population,  came  the  continued  discovery  and  de- 
velopment of  valuable  mines,  the  multiplication  of  churches, 
schools  and  newspapers,  the  establishment  of  great  business 
houses,  and  the  formation  of  rival  political  parties,  the  first 
that  Utah  had  known. 

Tourist  Travel. — The  tide  of  tourist  travel  set  in  as  early 
as  the  summer  of  1869,  while  the  journey  from  Ogden  to  Salt 
Lake  City  was  still  by  stage  coach  or  other  horse-power  con- 
veyance. Among  the  first  to  cross  the  country  by  rail  was 
Honorable  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  Ex-President  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  author  of  or  sponsor  for  the  Wade  Bill,  an 
an  ti-"  Mormon"  measure  introduced  into  Congress  during 
1866.  Other  early  visitors  were  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan, 
Senator  Roscoe  Conklin,  and  William  H.  Seward,  Lincoln's 
great  Secretary  of  State.  Seward,  while  in  Utah,  was  the  guest 
of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  had  a  pleasant  interview  with  President 
Brigham  Young.  The  same  is  true  of  Senator  Lyman  Trum- 
bull,  who  came  with  Colonel  James  H.  Bowen  and  a  party  of 
commercial  men  from  Chicago.  During  that  summer  the  ec- 
centric George  Francis  Train  paid  the  Territory  a  visit.  Early 
in  the  autumn  Oliver  Ames,  President  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company,  arrived  with  a  large  party  representing 
Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  interests.  Their  purpose 
was  to  settle  the  question  of  the  removal  of  the  railroad 
junction  from  Promontory  to  Ogden,  a  matter  decided  in  No- 
vember. Major  Powell,  the  intrepid  explorer  of  the  Colorado 
River,  reached  Salt  Lake  City  in  September.  The  object  of 
the  visit  of  the  Chicago  Commercial  Party,  as  explained  by 
Colonel  Bowen,  was  "to  facilitate  commercial  relations  with  lo- 
calities made  tributary  by  the  completion  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific and  Central  Pacific  Railroad."  His  complimentary  allusion 
to  the  people  of  Utah  for  their  "hearty,  efficient,  and  timely 
aid  to  the  companies  charged  with  the  completion  of  this  gi- 
gantic national  highway,"  was  responded  to  in  an  appropriate 
manner  by  President  Young. 

The  Mining  Revival. — The  impetus  given  by  the  railroad 
to  the  mining  industry  was  marked.  From  the  autumn  of 
1863  to  the  latter  part  of  1865,  the  period  covered  by  the  opera- 
tions of  General  Connor  and  his  fellow  promoters,  little  had 
been  accomplished,  though  a  great  deal  of  money  had  been  ex- 
pended. Many  claims  had  been  located,  mines  opened,  and  one 
or  more  smelting  furnaces  erected  in  Rush  Valley ;  but  owing 
to  inexperience  in  smelting  ores,  scarcity  of  charcoal,  and  high 
rates  of  transportation,  these  enterprises  languished  and  finally 
became  bankrupt.  The  Knickerbocker  and  Argenta  Mining 


224      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


and  Smelting  Company,  organized  in  New  York  City  to  op- 
erate in  Rush  Valley,  met  with  no  better  success.  It  was 
found  impossible,  without  railroads,  to  make  mining  pay,  and 
the  attempt  was  abandoned. 

Early  Mining  Districts. — The  awakening  that  came  in 
1869-1870  was  particularly  manifest  in  Little  Cottonwood 
Canyon,  one  of  the  great  gorges  of  the  Wasatch  Range  run- 
ning westward  into  Salt  Lake  Valley.  Silver-bearing  lead  ore 
had  been  discovered  there  in  1863  or  1864,  but  little  had  been 
done  in  the  way  of  development.  About  four  years  later  the 
Little  Cottonwood  Mining  District  was  organized.  The  ear- 
liest to  operate  in  that  part  were  the  Woodhull  brothers,  who 
made  the  first  shipment  of  Utah  galena  ore  in  the  summer  of 
1869.  It  went  to  the  Selby  Reduction  Works,  at  San  Fran- 
cisco. Another  early  shipment  was  to  James  Lewis  and  Com- 
pany, Liverpool,  England;  the  ore  being  smelted  at  Swansea, 
Wales.  The  success  of  these  ventures  gave  an  impetus  to  min- 
ing all  over  the  Territory.  In  1868  Utah  had  two  mining  dis- 
tricts; in  1871  there  were  thirty-two.  The  originals  were  the 
Rush  Valley  District,  covering  the  whole  western  slope  of  the 
Oquirrh  Mountains;  and  the  West  Mountain  District,  covering 
all  the  eastern  slope. 

The  Emma  Mine — Other  Properties. — One  of  the  earliest 
locations  in  Little  Cottonwood  was  the  Emma  Mine,  which 

sold  in  England  for  five  million 
dollars — much  more  than  it  was 
actually  worth.  The  Flagstaff, 
a  neighbor  to  the  Emma,  was 
disposed  of  in  the  same  market 
||^  for  one  and  a  half  millions. 

^\  During      the      excitement 

caused    by    the    rich    develop- 
$jiJi  j&j*  ments    in    Little    Cottonwood, 

horn  silver  was  discovered  in 
East  Canyon  of  the  Oquirrh 
range — east  with  reference  to 
Tooele  Valley,  into  which  it 
runs.  There,  in  1870,  was  or- 
ganized the  Ophir  Mining  Dis- 
trict ;  its  first  location  being 
the  Silveropolis  Mine.  The 
earliest  workings  of  this  prop- 
erty, forty  tons,  were  shipped 
west  by  the  Walker  Brothers, 
netting  them  twenty-four 
thousand  dollars.  The  richness 
of  the  finds  in  Little  Cot- 


J.  ROBINSON  WALKER. 


T1JK  KAN, ROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  225 

tonwood  and  Ophir  made  Utah  famous  as  a  first-rate  mining 
field. 

The  Rush  Valley  Claims. — Many  owners  of  claims  in  and 
around  Rush  Valley  were  soldiers  from  Camp  Douglas.  Soon 
after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  Volunteers,  relieved  by 
regular  troops  from  the  East,  left  Utah  to  seek  employment 
elsewhere.  Before  going,  those  who  had  prospects  brought 
about  an  amendment  of  the  mining  laws,  making  claims  per- 
petually valid,  though  they  had  had  but  little  work  done  upon 
them.  This  action,  by  preventing  the  same  ground  from  being 
relocated,  greatly  retarded  the  development  of  the  mines  in 
that  section. 

First  Mining  Camps. — Each  mining  district  had  its 
"camp"  or  "town/"  where  the  miners  and  other  workmen 
dwelt.  The  more  important  camps  at  the  beginning  were  Bing- 


BINGHAM. 

ham,  in  Bingham  Canyon,  and  Alta,  in  Little  Cottonwood. 
In  and  around  Alta,  "the  home  of  the  snowslide,"  many  per- 
sons lost  their  lives,  victims  to  the  avalanche.  Thriving 
towns  also  sprang  up  in  the  Tintic,  Uintah,  Camp  Floyd,  Gold 
Mountain,  and  other  districts.  At  Park  City,  in  the  Uintah 
District,  was  the  great  Ontario  Mine.  Other  famous  properties 
have  since  been  developed  there. 

The  Utah  Central  and  Utah  Southern  railroads,  with  their 
extensions,  did  much   for  the   mining  industry.      Connecting 

14 


WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

lines  to  Bingham,  Little  Cottonwood,  and  American  Fork  can- 
yons were  soon  running,  and  ores  from  these  and  other  local- 
ities found  speedy  transit  to  mills  and  smelters  at  home  and 
abroad.  Subsequently  a  railroad,  passing-  up  Parley's  Can- 
yon, helped  to  develop  the  mines  in  and  around  Park  City. 

Smelters  and  Stamp  Mills. — It  was  during  the  summer  of 
1870  that  the  first  smelters  were  erected  in  Salt  Lake  Valiev ; 


PARK   CITY. 

the  earliest  being  that  of  the  Woodhull'  brothers,  which  was 
built  at  a  point  where  Big  Cottonwood  Creek  crosses  State 
Street.  From  these  works  was  shipped  the  first  bullion  pro- 
duced in  Utah.  In  1871  the  Walker  Brothers  put  up  a  crushing 
and  amalgamating  mill  in  East  Canyon,  a  mill  with  fifteen 
stamps,  used  for  working  the  silver  ores  of  Ophir.* 

The  Co-operative  Movement. — The  period  of  the  mining 
revival  witnessed  the  establishment  of  Zion's  Co-operative 
Mercantile  Institution,  better  known  by  its  initials,  Z.  C.  M.  I. ; 
the  greatest  enterprise  of  its  kind  that  the  inter-mountain 
region  has  yet  known.  It  was  partly  in  pursuance  of  their  pol- 
icy of  community  protection,  referred  to  in  the  previous  chap- 

*At  first  silver  and  lead  were  the  staple  products  of  the  Utah 
mines;  though  gold  and  copper  were  also  found  in  Bingham  Canyon 
and  in  other  places.  Between  the  summer  of  1869  and  the  autumn  of 
1871,  ten  thousand  tons  of  silver  and  gold  ores,  valued  at  $2,500,000, 
were  shipped  from  the  Territory;  also  four  thousand  five  hundred 
tons  of  gold  and  silver  bullion,  worth  $1,237,000,  and  two  hundred 
and  thirty-one  tons  of  copper  ore,  valued  at  $6,000.  Silver  bars,  ob- 
tained by  milling  the  silver  ores,  produced  $120.000.  The  distinctive 
feature  of  Utah  mining  today  (1916)  is  copper  production. 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  227 

t.er,  that  the  "Mormon"  leaders  established  "Co-operation." 
Brigham  Young  was  the  prime  mover,  and  associated  with  him 
were  such  financial  pillars  as  William  Jennings,  William  H. 
Hooper  and  Horace  S.  Eldredge.  Numbered  also  among  the 
main  promoters  were  George  A.  Smith,  George  Q.  Cannon, 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  Abraham  O.  Smoot,  Erastus  Snow,  Moses 
Thatcher,  and  other  stalwart  men  of  affairs.  They  and  their 
associates  founded  at  Salt  Lake  City  a  parent  commercial  in- 
stitution which  dealt  directly  with  wholesale  houses  East  and 
West,  and  was  itself  the  principal  source  of  supply  for  mercan- 
tile and  industrial  concerns  throughout  the  Territory.  At 
the  same  time  it  carried  on  a  retail  trade  of  its  own,  with 
branches  at  Ogden,  Logan,  Provo  and  other  points.  Local 
merchants  were  invited  to  turn  in  their  stock  and  become  part 
owners,  and  the  people  generally  were  solicited  to  take  shares. 


Z.  C.  M.  I.  MAIN  BUILDING. 

The  avowed  object  was  to  keep  down  prices,  foster  home  in- 
dustries, and  unite  the  material  interests  of  the  old  settlers  in 
the  face  of  the  strong  competition  that  was  beginning  to  surge 
in  from  outside  sources.  The  co-operative  movement  was 
launched  in  October  1868.* 

*This  was  not  Utah's  first  attempt  at  co-operation.  Lorenzo 
Snow  and  others  had  founded,  in  1864,  the  Brigham  City  Mercantile 
and  Manufacturing  Association,  a  co-operative  concern  which,  branch- 
ing out  from  humble  beginnings,  grew  into  many  departments  and 
achieved  quite  a  notable  career.  The  success  attending  that  venture 
helped  to  pave  the  way  for  the  greater  movement  that  followed. 


228      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Provo  had  the  honor  of  opening  the  first  co-operative  store 
under  the  new  system;  Salt  Lake  City  and  other  towns  then 
wheeling  into  line.  Z.  C.  M.  I.  flourished;  its  growth  was 
phenomenal.  Co-operation  became  the  watchword  of  the 
hour.  All  over  Utah  and  even  beyond  her  borders,  wherever 
there  were  Latter-day  Saints,  business  was  conducted  along 
these  lines;  not  only  in  co-operative  stores,  mills  and  factories, 
but  in  co-operative  cattle  and  sheep  herds,  stock  farms,  dairies, 
and  other  industries.* 

A  Groundless  Fear. — The  "Gentiles"  surveyed  the  co-op- 
erative movement  with  grave  concern,  regarding  it  as  a  dan- 
gerous monopoly.  They  supposed  that  it  meant  ruin  to  their 


WALKER   BROTHERS     STORE. 


material  interests.  But  their  fears  were  groundless.  It  ben- 
efited the  entire  community — in  no  way  more  pronouncedly 
than  as  a  leveler  of  prices,  an  employer  of  labor,  and  a  pro- 
moter of  good  and  worthy  enterprises. 

*The  Utah  mills  and  factories  deserve  special  mention.  The 
Provo  Woolen  Mills,  founded  by  A.  O.  Smoot  and  others  in  1869, 
while  not  the  first  in  point  of  time,  proved  by  far  the  most  successful. 
One  of  the  earliest  was  a  cotton  and  woolen  factory,  at  Washington, 
Washington  County,  built  by  Brigham  Young  in  1865,  and  later 
sold  to  the  Rio  Virgen  Manufacturing  Company,  of  which  Erastus 
Snow  was  president. 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  229 

The  chief  rival  of  Z.  C.  M.  I.,  was  the  great  mercantile  firm 
of  Walker  Brothers.  The  Walkers  had  once  been  "Mormons," 
but  long  before  co-operation  was  introduced  they  had  left  the 
Church  and  were  classed  among  the  "Gentiles."  Another  big 
concern  was  that  of  the  Auerbach  Brothers,  Jews.  All  three 
houses  are  still  in  existence,  though  many  changes  have  passed 
over  them.  Z.  C.  M.  L,  at  the  present  time  (1916),  has  "Gen- 
tile" as  well  as  "Mormon"  stockholders.* 

Land  Matters. — The  United  States  land  laws  were  now 
extended  over  the  Territory,  and  the  people  who  had  waited  so 
long  for  legal  titles  to  the  ground  upon  which  they  had  built 
their  homes,  were  in  a  fair  way  to  be  confirmed  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  soil  they  occupied.  A  Surveyor  General's  Office 
had  been  established  in  Utah  as  early  as  February,  1855,  when 
David  H.  Burr  was  appointed  Surveyor  General.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded in  June,  1859,  by  Samuel  C.  Stambough,  who  was  fol- 
lowed in  August,  1861,  by  S.  R.  Fox.  About  a  year  later  Utah 
and  Colorado  were  consolidated  into  one  surveying  district, 
with  the  chief  office  at  Denver;  but  in  1868  the  office  was  re- 
established at  Salt  Lake  City,  with  General  John  A.  Clark  as 
Surveyor  General. 

The  Land  Office  was  opened  in  March,  1869,  with  C.  C. 
Clements  as  Register,  and  Lewis  S.  Hills,  a  Utah  man,  as  Re- 
ceiver. Mr.  Clements  soon  succeeded  General  Clark,  and  Mr. 
Hills  gave  place  to  Receiver  Giles  P.  Overton.  The  new  Reg- 
ister was  General  George  R.  Maxwell,  a  shattered  veteran  of 
the  Civil  War.  He  was  from  Michigan.  Maxwell  was  no 

*What  was  looked  upon  as  a  deliberate  attempt  to  cripple  Z.  C. 
M:  I.  was  put  forth  in  1879,  when  arose  "The  Scrip  Case,"  the  parties 
to  which  were  the  United  States,  by  its  Internal  Revenue  Collector, 
O.  J.  Hollister,  and  Zion's  Co-operative  Mercantile  Institution.  This 
litigation  was  over  the  taxation  of  the  scrip  issued  by  Z.  C.  M.  I.  to 
its  employes,  a  certain  amount  of  which  found  its  way  into  general 
circulation — not  as  money,  but  as  due  bills,  payable  in  merchandise 
at  the  various  stores  owned  and  conducted  by  the  Institution.  Colonel 
Hollister  contended  that  these  bills  were  a  regular  circulating  me- 
dium, and  as  such  he  taxed  them.  To  his  peremptory  demand  for 
the  amount  of  the  tax — $16,810.92— the  directors  of  Z.  C.  M.  I.  had  no 
alternative  but  to  pay,  protesting,  however,  against  the  exaction  as 
illegal.  Proceedings  for  the  recovery  of  the  amount  were  instituted 
in  the  Utah  courts,  and  the  case  was  finally  carried  to  the  highest 
tribunal  in  the  land.  The  result  in  every  instance  was  a  ruling  against 
the  Revenue  Collector,  the  tax  being  pronounced  illegal.  The  final 
decision  was  rendered  in  the  summer  of  1884,  and  subsequently  the 
tax  money  was  refunded  with  interest.  The  Brigham  City  Manufac- 
turing and  Mercantile  Association  had  also  planted  suits,  for  similar 
cause,  against  the  Collector,  and  in  due  time  they  likewise  recovered 
the  amount  of  the  tax  paia  by  them  to  the  Government.  Other  co- 
operative concerns  were  injuriously  affected  by  the  Collector's  action. 


230      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

friend  to  the  "Mormons,"  and  while  he  was  in  office  they  had 
considerable  trouble  over  their  land  matters.* 

The  University  Revives. — At  the  beginning  of  the  railroad 
era  the  University  of  Deseret,  after  a  long  period  of  inactivity, 
took  on  a  new  lease  of  life.  In  December,  1867  it  again  opened 
its  doors  to  students  in  the  Council  House,  and  during  the  next 
two  years  was  conducted  chiefly  as  a  commercial  school,  with 
David  O.  Calder  as  Principal.  In  the  autumn  of  1869  the  Uni- 

*Mayor  Wells,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  in  an  interview  with  a  corre- 
spondent of  "The  Cincinnati  Commercial,"  thus  paid  his  respects  to 
Register  Maxwell: 

"Mayor  Wells — It  is  no  fault  of  the  United  States  Government 
that  we  are  not  now  peacefully  possessing  the  titles  to  the  ground  we 
have  redeemed,  and  which  Congress  wishes  us  to  retain.  It  is  the 
fault  of  the  unrelenting  Land  Register  here,  Maxwell,  who  has  en- 
tertained and  abetted  every  petty  and  malicious  claim  contesting  our 
right  to  the  site,  and  who  hinders  the  entry  of  our  city. 

"Correspondent. — How  much  do  you  claim  as  the  proper  area  of 
Salt  Lake  City? 

"Mayor  Wells. — About  five  thousand  seven  hundred  acres,  suf- 
ficient to  give  us  water  front  on  the  Jordan, and  control  of  the  irrigating 
reservoirs.  We  have  laid  out  the  city  with  an  eye  to  coolness,  breath- 
ing valves,  wide  streets,  and  plats  for  recreation.  *  *  *  Salt  Lake 
has  grown  so  far  beyond  all  precedents  that  we  had  to  get  a  special 
relief  bill  passed,  applying  to  our  city,  and  we  took  a  census  for  the 
purpose.  The  Land  Office  .at  Washington  recommended,  and  Con- 
gress promptly  passed,  the  special  bill,  under  the  terms  of  which  we 
added  to  our  original  chart  other  essential  bits  of  ground." 

"Correspondent. — Give  me  the  names  of  all  the  claims  which 
Maxwell  has  entertained  against  the  City. 

"Mayor  Wells. — Well,  thefe  are  the  Robinson,  Slosson,  William- 
son and  Orr  cases.  Robinson  was  a  retired  surgeon  of  the  army. 
*  *  *  He  jumped  the  Warm  Springs  property,  our  public  bath 
houses  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  with  eighty  acres  of  environing 
land,  *  *  *  put  a  tent  and  a  guard  by  the  spring,  and  built  a  fence 
within  our  fence.  *  *  *  We  removed  his  obstructions,  and  he  em- 
barassed  us  at  law  until  his  death,  when  his  widow  continued  the  suit, 
and  the  land  agent  actually  permitted  her  to  make  a  cash  entry  of  the 
place.  Very  differently  did  the  Washington  authorities  behave.  The 
Commissioner  of  the  Land  Office  decided  without  hesitation  in  our 
favor,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  confirmed  it."  *  *  *  * 
Slosson  was  a  fellow  who  first  rented  a  quarter-section  of  ground 
from  the  City  on  the  road  leading  to  Camp  Douglas,  and  when  he 
undertook  to  keep  a  rum  shop  on  it,  in  violation  of  law,  we  ejected 
him.  He  was  then  abetted  by  Maxwell  in  a  barefaced  attempt  to 
claim  it  and  enter  it;  but  Maxwell's  decision  was  reversed  by  the 
heads  of  department  at  Washington."  Mayor  Wells  went  on  to  re- 
late how  Williamson  jumped  the  parade  ground,  while  Orr — a  Salt 
Lake  lawyer — filed  upon  eighty  acres  between  Ensign  Peak  and  Arsenal 
Hill,  both  of  which  claims  were  entertained  by  the  Register,  who 
refused  to  decide  them,  and  so  kept  back  the  City  entry.  There  was 
no  complaint  against  Congress  or  the  General  Land  Office,  the  Mayor 
added,  but  Register  Maxwell  ought  to  be  instructed  not  to  entertain 
"these  paltry  claims,"  each  of  which  was  "a  reproduction  of  claim.* 
already  thrown  out." 


THE  RAJ]. ROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  231 


versity  was  more  fully  organized  on  a  basis  of  classical,  sci- 
entific, and  normal  instruction,  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  John 
R.  Park,  who  had  been  elected  President  by  the  Board  of  Re- 
gents. Dr.  Park  was  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  a  medical  graduate 
of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  He  had  been  a 
permanent  resident  of  Utah  since  1864. 

Newspapers  and  Magazines. — Many  changes  took  place  in 
the  field  of  journalism.  In  November,  1867  "The  Deseret 
News,"  until  then  issued  week- 
ly and  semi-weekly,  made  its 
appearance  as  a  daily  paper — 
'The  Deseret  Evening  News," 
with  George  Q.  Cannon  as  edi- 
tor. In  January,  1868  Elias  L. 
T.  Harrison  and  William  S. 
Godbe  established  "The  Utah 
Magazine,"  which  became  "The 
Mormon  Tribune,"  and  even- 
tually "The  Salt  Lake  Tri- 
bune." Mr.  Harrison  and  Ed- 
ward W.  Tullidge  had  previ- 
ously started  "The  Peep  O' 
Day,"  a  literary  and  scientific 
periodical  which  suspended  af- 
ter a  brief  career.  In  June, 
1870,  "The  Salt  Lake  Herald" 
was  founded  by  Edward  L. 
Sloan  and  William  C.  Dunbar, 
who  took  in  as  a  third  partner 
John  T.  Caine.  The  "Herald"  succeeded  the  "Daily  Tele- 
graph," which,  with  its  opponent,  the  "Union  Vedette,"  had 
passed  out  of  existence.  Another  journal  of  note  was  "The 
Ogden  Junction,"  owned  by  Franklin  D.  Richards  and  others, 
and  edited  by  Charles  W.  Penrose.  "The  Woman's  Expo- 
nent," a  weekly  paper  founded  by  leading  women  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church,  issued  its  first  number  in  June,  1872,  with  Lula 
Greene  Richards  as  editor.  But  the  name  most  closely  identi 
fied  with  the  Exponent,  and  longest  at  the  head  of  its  editorial 
columns,  was  that  of  Mrs.  Emmeline  B.  Wells.  Several  smaller 
prints  were  published  at  the  capital  and  in  two  or  three  of  the 
country  towns. 

Churches  and  Schools. — The  earliest  religious  organiza- 
tion at  Salt  Lake  City,  after  the  Latter-day  Saints,  was  the 
Congregational  Society,  which  built  Independence  Hall,  incor- 
porated the  Salt  Lake  Academy,  erected  Hammond  Hall,  and 
established  a  free  school.  Next  came  the  Episcopalians,  found- 
ing St.  Mark's  Cathedral  and  subsequently  St.  Mark's  Hospital, 


DR.    JOHN    R.    PARK. 


232      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


the  first  institution  of  its  kind 
in  the  Territory.  Presbyterian 
work  began  with  the  rise  of 
Corinne,  in  March,  1869.  Two 
years  later  there  was  a  Presby- 
terian church  at  the  capital,  and 
until  it  was  completed,  the  pas- 
tor, Reverend  Josiah  Welch, 
preached  in  Faust's  Hall,  on 
Second  South  Street.  The  Meth- 
odists sent  their  first  missionary 
to  Utah — Reverend  Gustavus 
M.  Pierce — in  the  spring  of  1870. 
They  carried  on  their  work, 
first  at  Corinne,  and  then  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  building  a  church 
near  the  site  of  the  original  Pio- 
neer camp-ground.  In  June, 
1871,  a  Methodist  camp  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  same  vicin- 
ity. By  that  time  the  Baptists 
had  also  put  in  an  appearance. 

As  early  as  1864  a  Catholic  priest,  Father  Raverdy  of  Denver, 
came  to  Camp  Douglas,  and  at  the  request  of  General  Con- 
nor consecrated  the  post  cemetery;  but  the  first  structure 
reared  by  the  Catholics  in  Utah  was  the  Church  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalen,  dedicated  in  November,  1871.  They  also  founded 
St.  Mary's  Academy,  the  Hospital  of  the  Holy  Cross,  and 
All  Hallows  College.  Their  first  resident  pastor  was  Edward 


BISHOP  SCANLAN. 


ST.    MARK  S    HOSPITAL. 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  WHAT  CAME  WITH  IT.  233 

Kelley ;  then  followed  in  succession  Fathers  James  P.  Foley, 
Patrick  Walsh,  and  Lawrence  Scanlan.  The  Jews  held  re- 
ligious services  at  the  capital  in  1871 ;  their  little  congregation, 
until  it  could  better  itself,  being  given  the  free  use  of  a  room 
in  the  City  Hall.  Meantime  the  Latter-day  Saints  had  partly 
reared  their  great  Temple  at  Salt  Lake  City,  completed  their 
mammoth  Tabernacle,  and  dotted  the  land,  from  Bear  Lake 
to  the  Rio  Virgen,  with  chapels,  school  houses  and  other 
public  buildings. 


XX. 

MODERN  GUELF  AND  GHIBELLINE. 

1867-1870. 

Almost  a  Parallel. — In  Italy  during  the  Middle  Ages  there 
existed  a  social  and  political  condition  of  which  affairs  in  Utah 
have  at  times  been  strongly  reminiscent.  This  reference  is  to 
the  feuds  of  the  Guelfs  and  the  Ghibellines;  the  former,  par- 
tisans of  the  Pope,  the  latter  those  of  the  Emperor.  They  were 
also  known  as  the  popular  and  the  aristocratic  parties.  It  is  not 
the  purpose  of  this  History  to  draw  an  extended  comparison 
between  Italy  with  her  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines,  and  Utah  with 
her  '"Mormons"  and  "Gentiles."  Suffice  it  that  the  bitterness 
engendered  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  between  the  militant  par- 
ties named,  was  not  more  intense  than  the  acrimony  often 
manifested  between  the  classes  of  citizens  comprising  this 
modern  commonwealth. 

Three  Classes. — There  are  really  three  classes  in  Utah,  as 
observed  by  Captain  Burton  in  1860;  namely,  "Mormons," 
"Gentiles,"  and  "Anti-Mormons."  The  "Anti-Mormons"  are 
"Gentiles,"  but  not  all  the  "Gentiles"  are  "Anti-Mormons." 
There  are  radicals  and  conservatives  in  every  party. 

A  "Mormon"  View  of  the  "Gentile." — There  is  no  oppro- 
brious intent  in  the  use  by  "Mormons"  of  the  word  "Gentile." 
The  Book  of  Mormon,  without  naming  Columbus,  Washing- 
ton, the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  and  the  Patriots  of  the  Revolution, 
refers  to  them  as  "Gentiles,"  and  describes  American  and 
European  nations  as  "the  nations  of  the  Gentiles."  While 
claiming  Israelitish  origin  in  part,  the  Latter-day  Saints  be- 
lieve themselves  likewise  descended  from  Japheth,  the  original 
"Gentile."  They  revere  the  names  and  works  of  the  founders 
of  the  American  Republic,  and  hold  that  the  children  of  Jap- 
heth, with  their  wonderful  insight  into  and  command  over 
material  things,  their  skill  in  commerce,  politics,  art,  science, 
and  other  agencies  of  civilization,  are  virtually  their  co-workers 
in  a  mission  that  contemplates  the  gathering  of  scattered  Israel 
and  the  introduction  of  the  Millennial  Reign.  "They  shall  fly 
upon  the  shoulders  of  the  Philistines  toward  the  West"  (Isaiah 
11  :14).  The  "Mormon"  interprets  this  to  mean  the  migration 
of  modern  Israel  from  trans-Atlantic  nations  to  America,  the 
Land  of  Zion ;  "the  shoulders  of  the  Philistines"  being  the 
steamships  and  railroads  of  the  "Gentiles."  In  other  words. 
Divine  Providence,  in  latter  as  in  former'.times,  has  given  to 
the  "Gentiles"  a  great  temporal  mission,  second  only  to  the 


MODERN   GUELF  AND  GH1BELLINE.  235 

spiritual  mission  of  the  House  of  Israel,  and  practically  a  part 
thereof,  since  the  spiritual  includes  the  temporal.  This  inclu- 
sion, by  the  way,  as  asserted  in  "Mormon"  philosophy  and 
practice,  is  precisely  what  the  "Gentiles"  object  to,  misinter- 
preting the  motive  behind  it,  and  regarding  the  goal  aimed  at 
as  evil.  Nor  should  the  fact  be  at  all  surprising.  The 
"Gentile"  cannot  be  expected  to  take  a  "Mormon"  view  of  the 
subject.  The  objection  is  natural,  but  the  fear  is  unfounded. 
Broad  and  high,  patriotic  and  pure,  are  the  real  aims  of  the 
real  "Mormonism." 

Utah's  "Irrepressible  Conflict." — Responsibility  for  the 
factional  strife  that  tore  Utah  almost  from  the  hour  of  her 
creation,  rests  largely  upon  the  essentially  un-American  sys- 
tem of  sending  strangers  to  rule  over  communities  with  which 
they  have  little  or  nothing  in  common — officers  not  elected  by 
the  people,  but  appointed  by  the  General  Government,  and 
frequently,  in  the  past,  unworthy  of  the  positions  for  which 
they  were  chosen.  Among  all  the  political  dependencies  of 
the  Nation,  Utah's  case  was  unique,  in  that  most  of  her  people 
professed  one  religion — a  religion  unpopular  in  the  world,  and 
whose  votaries  were  often  hated  by  those  who  came  from 
other  parts  to  govern,  to  administer  the  law,  or  otherwise 
officiate  among  them.  Local  self-government — that  basic 
principle  of  all  true  Democracy — would  doubtless  have  solved 
many  of  the  problems  that  vexed  our  Territorial  history. 

The  causes  of  the  strife,  however,  were  not  entirely  polit- 
ical. Social  and  religious  prejudice  has  played  and  still  plays 
its  part,  in  dividing  and  keeping  asunder  those  who  might 
otherwise  be  friendly.  It  would  only  be  a  truism  to  say  that 
the  fault  is  not  entirely  on  one  side.  "Mormons"  and  "Gen- 
tiles" are  but  human  beings — the  rest  follows.  Most  of  the 
wranglings  that  have  distracted  Utah,  as  the  result  of  disagree- 
ments between  these  classes,  have  been  based  upon  misunder- 
standings, misinterpretations  of  acts  and  motives,  the  antag- 
onism of  supposed  rival  claims  and  adverse  interests.  It  is  the 
hope  and  belief  of  good  people  on  either  side,  that  when  "Mor- 
mons" and  "Gentiles"  know  each  other  better,  they  will  like 
each  other  more. 

General  Connor's  Policy. — A  former  chapter  mentioned 
the  plan  proposed  by  the  founder  of  Camp  Douglas  for  Utah's 
"regeneration."  "My  policy,"  said  General  Connor,  "has  been 
to  invite  hither  a  large  Gentile  and  loyal  population,  sufficient 
by  peaceful  means  and  through  the  ballot  box  to  overwhelm 
the  Mormons  by  mere  force  of  numbers,  and  thus  wrest  from 
the  Church — disloyal  and  traitorous  to  the  core — the  absolute 
and  tyrannical  control  of  civil  and  temporal  affairs ;  or  at  least 
a  population  numerous  enough  to- put  a  check  on  the  Mormon 


236      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

authorities,  and  give  countenance  to  those  who  are  striving  to 
loosen  the  bonds  with  which  they  have  been  so  long  op- 
pressed." 

General  Connor  was  no  doubt  sincere  in  his  desire  to  bring 
about  a  change  that  he  believed  would  be  for  the  best  good  of 
all.  But  he  did  not  understand  the  "Mormon"  people,  nor  the 
genius  of  the  "Mormon"  religion.  He  did  not  apprehend  the 
true  situation.  The  Church  was  not  "disloyal  and  traitorous," 
and  its  members  were  not  "oppressed."  The  only  "bonds" 
that  held  them  were  the  bonds  of  duty  and  devotion.  Nor 
would  their  religion  have  countenanced  oppression  in  any 
form,  either  against  themselves  or  against  their  non-"Mormon" 
neighbors.  They  were  "rebels"  in  one  sense — they  rebelled  in 
their  feelings  against  misrepresentation.  They  refused  to  con- 
sider themselves  "traitors,"  and  insisted  that  they  were  loyal 
"to  the  core."  Their  contempt  for  those  who  imagined  them- 
selves possessed  of  all  the  patriotism  in  the  community,  was 
quite  as  pronounced  as  the  arrogance  that  called  it  forth.  Gen- 
eral Connor's  extreme  views  underwent  considerable  modifica- 
tion after  he  had  lived  a  while  in  Utah,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  the  harsh  opinions  originally  entertained  toward  him  and 
his  fellows. 

The  General  proposed,  by  developing  the  mines,  to  in- 
crease the  "Gentile"  vote,  and  place  it  in  control  of  civic  affairs. 
Having  failed  in  his  purpose,  he  quit  Utah  for  a  season,  and 
the  Volunteers  at  Camp  Douglas,  when  relieved  by  regular 
troops,  also  left  the  Territory.  The  "regenerating"  work,  like 
the  mining  movement,  then  went  into  abeyance. 

The  "Gentile"  Opportunity. — An  opportunity  to  effect 
some  of  the  changes  desired  by  the  "Gentiles"  came  with  the 
advent  of  the  railroad.  Thenceforth  Utah  was  to  have  at  least 
two  political  parties.  Up  to  that  time  she  had  but  one — the 
People's  Partv,  most  of  whose  adherents  were  members  of  the 
"Mormon"  Church.  This  party  began  its  career  in  March, 
1849,  with  the  inception  of  the  Provisional  Government.  The 
Liberal  Party,  which  now  came  into  existence,  was  made  up  of 
all  classes  not  included  in  the  People's  Party.  The  Liberals 
recognized  General  Connor  as  the  father  of  their  political  or- 
ganization, though  he  was  not  its  immediate  founder.  It  grew 
out  of  a  coalition  between  the  "Gentiles"  and  a  small  bodv  of 
seceding  "Mormons"  known  as  "Godbeites,"  concerning  whom 
more  will  be  said  presently. 

Baskin  and  McGrorty. — Another  claimant  to  the  distinc- 
tion of  having  originated  the  first  "Gentile"  political  party  in 
Utah,  is  Robert  N.  Baskin,  the  veteran  "Anti-Mormon"  attor- 
ney. True  it  is  that  as  early  as  February,  1867,  the  "Gentile" 
voters  put  forward  a  candidate  for  office — one  William  Me- 


MODERN   GUELF  AND  GHIBELL1NE.  237 

Grorty,  a  merchant  in  a  small  way  at  Salt  Lake  City.  He  ran 
for  Congress  against  Captain  Hooper,  the  sitting  Delegate. 
The  organization  of  a  "Gentile"  party,  to  "oppose  the  political 
control  of  the  priesthood,"  had  previously  been  suggested  by 
Mr.  Baskin,  and  it  was  he  who  nominated  "McGroarty"  (such 
is  his  spelling  of  the  name)  for  Congress.  This  was  at  the 
office  of  Abel  Gilbert,  another  Salt  Lake  merchant,  where  cer- 
tain "Gentile"  business  men  were  wont  to  assemble  after  busi- 
ness hours,  to  "discuss  and  condemn  the  state  of  affairs  in 
Utah."  Mr.  Baskin  had  then  been  a  resident  of  the  Territory 
for  about  two  years.  He  was  originally  from  Ohio,  and  had 
graduated  from  the  law  school  of  Harvard  University.  At 
the  election  McGrorty  received  a  little  over  one  hundred  votes, 
while  for  his  opponent  more  than  fifteen  thousand  were  cast. 
The  defeated  candidate  carried  his  case  to  Washington,  con- 
testing Hooper's  right  to  be  reseated.  His  attorney  was 
former  Associate  Justice  Waite. 

Too  Long  a  Wait. — Unfortunately  for  Mr.  McGrorty,  he 
had  an  attorney,  in  the  author  of  "The  Mormon  Prophet,"  who 
could  tell  him  more  about  the  faults  of  his  neighbors,  than 
about  the  laws  of  Congress  governing  Delegate  elections.  He 
allowed  nearly  a  year  to  pass  before  beginning  his  contest, 
notice  of  which,  according  to  Congressional  law,  had  to  be  filed 
within  thirty  days  after  the  result  of  the  election  had  been 
officially  ascertained.  "Too  long  a  Waite" — pardoning  the 
word-play — would  have  headlined  the  situation  appropri- 
ately. It  was  January,  1868,  when  McGrorty  filed  with  the 
Committee  on  Elections  of  the  House  of  Representatives  his 
printed  brief,  accompanied  by  documents  in  support  of  various 
allegations  therein  contained. 

Charges  and  Refutations. — Among  other  things  McGrorty 
charged  that  the  "Mormons"  were  required  by  a  rule  of  their 
Church  to  take  an  oath  inconsistent  with  their  duties  as  loyal 
and  law-abiding  citizens,  and  he  implied  that  Captain  Hooper 
had  taken  such  an  oath.  He  also  alleged  that  in  some  of  the 
voting  precincts  the  election  had  been  conducted  irregularly, 
and  that  persons  not  entitled  to  vote  had  been  permitted  to 
cast  their  ballots.  The  reason  assigned  for  the  delay  in  be- 
ginning the  contest,  was  "fear  of  personal  violence  at  the  hands 
of  members  of  the  People's  Party." 

It  is  alleged  that  the  main  purpose  of  the  contest  was  "to 
direct  the  attention  of  Congress  and  the  Nation  to  existing 
conditions  in  Utah."  Granting  this  to  be  true,  the  inference  is 
reasonable  that  McGrorty's  whole  candidacy  had  that  object 
in  view,  since  his  defeat  at  the  polls  was  inevitable,  and  his 
rejection  at  Washington  no  less  certain.  But  why  the  gap  01 
nearly  a  year  between  the  election  and  the  contest?  The 


238      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

alleged  "fear  of  personal  violence"  proved  to  be  mere  clap-trap, 
an  explanation  that  did  not  explain.  If  such  a  danger  had 
really  existed,  it  would  have  been  just  as  imminent  when  the 
contest  began,  as  at  any  previous  period.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact  it  had  no  existence  whatever. 

Hooper  refused  to  recognize  McGrorty  as  a  legal  con- 
testant, since  he  had  failed  to  comply  with  the  law  of  Congress 
relating  to  election  contests.  Ignoring  the  sensational  tales 
forming  the  principal  part  of  the  complaint,  and  denying  for 
himself  and  his  people  the  taking  of  any  oath  of  disloyalty  to 
the  Government,  he  submitted  affidavits  from  Colonel  Head, 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs ;  Solomon  P.  McCurdy,  Asso- 
ciate Justice ;  Frank  Fuller  and  Amos  Reed,  former  Secretaries 
and  Acting-Governors;  with  statements  from  forty-one  other 
"Gentiles" — merchants,  bankers,  and  business  men — all  refut- 
ing McGrorty's  assertion  that  he  would  have  been  in  danger  of 
personal  violence  had  he  begun  his  contest  earlier.  They  de- 
clared that  he  could  have  done  so  with  perfect  safety  at  any 
time  after  the  election;  that  the  freest  expression  of  opinion 
was  tolerated  in  Utah ;  and  that  McGrorty,  while  publicly  an- 
nouncing on  the  streets  that  he  was  contesting  the  seat  of  the 
Delegate-elect,  had  not  been  molested  in  any  manner.  As  to 
the  alleged  irregularities  in  the  election,  Hooper  said  :  "Should 
the  vote  of  the  two  whole  counties  in  which  the  precincts  are 
located  be  rejected,  the  sitting  Delegate  still  has  over  twelve 
thousand  majority,  and  McGrorty  but  sixty-four  votes;  these 
being  the  only  two  counties  in  which  ex  parte  statements  have 
been  taken  as  to  irregularities,  and  the  evidence  is  not  sufficient 
as  to  these." 

Hooper  Again  Seated. — The  Committee  on  Elections  hav- 
ing rendered  its  report,  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  July 
1868,  unanimously  adopted  the  same,  refusing  to  admit  Mr. 
McGrorty  as  Delegate  from  Utah,  and  deciding  that  Mr. 
Hooper  was  rightfully  entitled  to  the  seat.  In  the  following 
August  the  latter,  was  elected  to  the  Forty-first  Congress  with- 
out opposition.* 

*From  the  first  election  in  Utah  until  early  in  1867,  there  had  been 
an  interregnum  of  several  months  during  which  the  Territory  was 
without  a  Delegate  in  Congress.  This  interval  was  from  the  4th  of 
March  in  the  odd  years,  when  each  Congress  expires,  until  the  first 
Monday  in  the  succeeding  August,  when  the  local  election  took  place, 
so  that  in  case  of  an  extra  session  between  March  and  August  of  these 
years  the  Territory  would  have  been  unrepresented.  To  obviate  this 
deficiency  a  law  was  enacted  in  January,  1867,  providing  that  the  elec- 
tion of  Delegate  to  the  Fortieth  Congress  should  be  held  on  the  first 
Monday  in  the  following  February,  and  that  the  Delegate  for  the 
Forty-first  Congress  should  be  chosen  at  the  general  election  on  the 
first  Monday  of  August,  1868,  and  biennially  thereafter.  In  this  way 
the  Delegate  was  chosen  several  months  in  advance  of  the  expiration 
of  his  predecessor's  term. 


MODERN   GUKLi'"  AND  GHiBELLiNE. 


239 


The  Godbeite  Movement. —  It  was  about  this  time  that  the 
"Godbeite  Movement"  began.  The  establishment  of  "The 
Utah  Magazine,"  by  William  S.  Godbe  and  Elias  L.  T.  Harri- 
son, has  been  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter.  Mr.  Godbe  was 
a  merchant,  and  Mr.  Harrison  an  architect.  The  latter,  a  tal- 
ented writer,  was  the  editor  of  the  magazine,  which  first  ap- 
peared in  January  1868,  and  was  issued  weekly  at  Salt  Lake 
City.  Originally  pro-"Mormon,"  its  owners  then  being  prom- 
inent Elders  of  the  Church,  it  soon  changed  its  tone  and  began 
to  advocate  policies  opposite  to 
those  of  the  Church  leaders, 
and  deemed  by  them  hurtful  to 
the  higher  interests  of  the  com- 
munity. Among  other  things, 
it  advocated  the  development  of 
the  mines,  a  movement  regard- 
ed by  those  leaders  as  still  prem- 
ature. Covert  insinuations,  re- 
flecting upon  President  Young, 
also  found  way  into  the  col- 
umns of  the  periodical. 

The  visit  to  Utah  of  Alex- 
ander and  David  Smith,  sons  of 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith, 
though  not  connected  with  the 
Church  to  whose  presidency 
Brigham  Young  had  succeeded, 
gave  the  Utah  Magazine  an  op- 
portunity to  speed  a  shaft  in 
the  direction  of  "The  One  Man 
Power,"  as  President  Young 
was  termed  by  some  of  his  op- 
ponents. Assuming  that  it  was 
his  purpose  to  found  a  dynasty,  and  have  one  of  his  sons  suc- 
ceed him  at  the  head  of  the  Church,  the  Magazine,  while  com- 
bating the  claim  to  succession  put  forth  by  Alexander  and 
David  Smith  in  behalf  of  their  elder  brother  Joseph,  used  the 
following  language :  "If  we  know  the  true  feeling  of 
our  brethren,  it  is  that  they  never  intend  Joseph  Smith's 
nor  any  other  man's  son  to  preside  over  them,  simply  because 
of  their  sonship.  The  principle  of  heirship  has  cursed  the 
world  for  ages,  and  with  our  brethren  we  expect  to  fight  it 
till,  with  every  other  relic  of  tyranny,  it  is  trodden  under  foot" 
("The  Rocky  Mountain  Saints,"  p.  635.)* 

*"Young  Joseph,"  as  the  Prophet's  eldest  son  was  called,  presided 
at  that  time  over  a  religious  body  styling-  itself  "The  Re-organized 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,"  having  its  headquarters 


WILLIAM  S.  GODBE. 


240      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  antagonism  of  those  owning  and  conducting  the  Utah 
Magazine  became  so  pronounced  that  in  October,  1869,  they 
were  severed  from  the  Church.  A  few  others  having  followed 
them,  they  formed  a  congregation  and  held  meetings  for  a 
time,  by  permission  of  President  Young,  in  the  Thirteenth 
Ward  Assembly  Rooms.  Afterwards  they  met  in  Walker 
Brothers  "Old  Store."  Subsequently  the  "Godbeites"  erected 
a  building  of  their  own — "The  Liberal  Institute,"  situated  on 
Second  East,  between  First  and  Second  South  streets.  Their 
opposition  to  the  Church  leaders,  while  emphatic,  was  respect- 
ful, never  bitter  and  abusive,  like  the  assaults  of  some  of  their 
colleagues.  Such  was  the  origin  of  "The  Godbeite  Movement," 
otherwise  known  as  "The  New  Movement";  the  latter  name 
recognized  by  its  adherents. 

Early  in  1870  the  "Godbeites"  established  a  paper,  "The 
Mormon  Tribune,"  issued  weekly  and  designed  as  the  organ 
of  the  New  Movement.  It  was  the  Utah  Magazine  trans- 
formed. The  publishers'  were  William  S.  Godbe  and  Elias  L. 
T.  Harrison;  the  editors,  Mr.  Harrison  and  Edward  W.  Tul- 
lidge.*  The  business  manager  of  the  paper,  Eli  B.  Kelsey, 
soon  retired,  and  was  succeeded  by  William  H.  Shearman. 

A  Second  Colfax  Visit. — Shortly  before  the  excommunica- 
tion of  Elders  Godbe  and  Harrison,  Schuyler -Colfax  made  his 
second  visit  to  Salt  Lake  City.  He  was  now  Vice  President 
of  the  United  States.  Again  he  was  proffered  the  municipal 
hospitalities;  but  this  time  declined  them,  being  offended  at 
the  "Mormon"  leaders,  a  report  having  reached  him  to  the 
effect  that  President  Young,  in  a  public  discourse,  had  referred 
to  the  heads  of  the  Nation  as  "drunkards"  and  "gamblers." 
Learning  of  the  prospective  "Utah  Schism,"  as  the  New  Move- 
ment was  afterwards  termed,  and  viewing  it  as  a  good  omen, 
Mr.  Colfax  became  interested  in  Mr.  Godbe  and  his  friends,  one 
of  whom,  T.  B.  H.  Stenhouse,  had  a  conversation  with  the  Vice 


at  Piano,  Illinois.  This  body,  originally  made  up  of  apostate  "Mor- 
mon" factions,  denied  that  Brigham  Young  was  the  lawful  successor 
to  Joseph  Smith,  and  they  also  made  strenuous  though  vain  efforts  to 
prove  that  Brigham,  and  not  Joseph,  introduced  plural  marriage  into 
the  Church,  and  that  the  Prophet  never  practiced  it.  To  present  these 
claims,  missionaries  had  been  sent  to  Utah  as  early  as  1862  or  1863, 
and  the  visit  of  Alexander  and  David  had  a  similar  purpose.  The  task 
of  replying  to  them  in  public  was  assigned  by  President  Young  to 
Elder  Joseph  F.  Smith,  son  of  Hyrum  Smith  the  martyred  Patriarch, 
and  then  but  recently  called  into  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 

*Mr.  Tullidge  was  a  gifted  dramatic  writer,  the  author  of  several 
plays.  One  of  these,  "Eleanor  De  Vere,"  was  written  especially  for 
Julia  Dean  Hayne,  and  was  presented  at  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre,  with 
that  great  actress  in  the  title  role.  Tullidge  also  wrote,  in  after  years, 
the  "Life  of  Brigham  Young,"  "The  Women  of  Mormondom,"  "Life 
of  Joseph  the  Prophet,"  and  "The  History  of  Salt  Lake  City." 


MODERN   GUELF  AND  GHIBELLINE.  241 

President  upon  local  conditions.  "Will  Brigham  Young  fight?" 
asked  Colfax  significantly.  In  reply,  Mr.  Stenhouse  pleaded 
that  Utah  might  be  allowed  to  solve  her  own  problems,  with- 
out interference  from  the  outside.* 

Vice  President  Colfax,  on  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  Octo- 
ber, delivered  a  speech  from  the  portico  of  the  Townsend 
House,  at  the  corner  of  West  Temple  and  First  South  streets ; 
a  multitude  of  hearers  thronging  the  space  below.  After  prais- 
ing the  Territorial  Fair,  which  was  then  being  held,  with  its 
interesting  exhibits  of  cotton,  woolen,  silk,  and  other  home 
products ;  also  the  Tabernacle  and  its  splendid  organ,  which 
he  had  just  heard  for  the  first  time ;  the  orator  commented  upon 
President  Young's  alleged  derogatory  remark  concerning  the 
heads  of  the  Nation.  He  declared  it  untrue,  whereupon  some- 
one in  the  crowd  shouted:  "Brigham  Young  never  said  it." 
Colfax  rejoined  that  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  heard  the 
report  denied,  and  rather  implied  that  he  was  "of  the  same 
opinion  still." 

A  Spirited  Controversy. — The  Vice  President,  in  the 
course  of  his  address,  touched  upon  the  subject  of  plural  mar- 
riage, saying:  "I  do  not  concede  that  the  institution  you  have 
established  here,  and  which  is  condemned  by  law,  is  a  question 
of  religion."  This  declaration  brought  forth  a  written  reply 
from  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  Church — Elder  John  Tay- 
lor, of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve,  whose  communication  was 
published  in  the  New  York  Tribune  and  copied  by  other 
Eastern  papers.  Therein  he  asked  the  question :  "Who  con- 
stituted Mr.  Colfax  a  judge  of  my  religious  faith?  I  think  he 
has  stated  that  'the  faith  of  every  man  is  a  matter  between 
himself  and  God  alone.' '  Mr.  Colfax  answered  through  the 
columns  of  the  New  York  Independent,  and  this  was  followed 
by  another  rejoinder  from  Elder  Taylor.  All  the  articles  were 
subsequently  published  together  in  pamphlet  form.f 

Editor  Bowles  Again. — Vice  President  Colfax,  upon  his 
second  visit  to  the  Territory,  was  accompanied,  as  before,  by 
Lieutenant  Governor  Bross,  of  Illinois,  and  by  the  Massachu- 
setts editor,  Samuel  Bowles.  The  latter,  who  had  written  so 
favorably  of  Utah  and  her  people  on  the  former  occasion, 
now  reversed  his  friendly  attitude.  In  a  Supplement  to  his 
book,  "Across  the  Continent,"  he  stated  that  since  the  visit 
of  the  Colfax  party  to  Salt  Lake  City  in  June  1865,  the  "Mor- 
mon" leaders  had  "repudiated  their  professions  of  loyalty  to 

*See  Tullidge's  "History  of  Salt  Lake  City,"  pp.  398-400. 

tFor  the  Colfax  speech  and  the  Taylor  icply,  with  other  matter 
upon  the  same  subject,  see  Tullidge's  "History  of  Salt  Lake  City." 
Chapter  46;  also  Whitney's  "History  of  Utah,"  Vol.  2,  Chapter  14. 

15 


242      WHITNEY'S  POi'l'LAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

the  Government."  "New  means  were  taken,"  he  asserted,  "to 
organize  and  drill  the  militia  of  the  Territory,"  and  provide 
them  with  arms,  "under  the  auspices  and  authority  of  the 
Mormon  Church ;"  and  "an  open  conflict  with  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Government"  was  "apparently  braved,  even  threat- 
ened." 

There  was  no  justification  for  such  a  statement.  No  "pro- 
fessions of  loyalty"  had  been  "repudiated"  by  the  "Mormon" 
leaders.  They  were  standing  where  they  had  always  stood  in 
their  attitude  toward  the  Government.  The  organizing  and 
drilling  of  the  militia  was  "under  the  auspices  and  authority" 
of  the  Territory  of  Utah,  and  had  been  going  on  for  a  genera- 
tion. If  any  "new  means"  were  taken  to  arm,  organize  and 
drill  the  citizen  soldiers  in  1869,  it  was  to  prepare  against  pos- 
sible Indian  outbreaks,  such  as  the  Black  Hawk  War,  which 
had  recently  closed.  During  that  strife  word  had  come  from 
the  military  authorities  in  the  East,  that  the  militia,  instead  of 
regular  troops,  must  be  depended  upon  "to  compel  the  Indians 
to  behave ;"  and  the  extra  organizing,  arming  and  drilling,  if 
there  was  any,  had  that  as  its  object.  Mr.  Bowles  was  still 
further  imposed  upon  by  those  from  whom  he  drew  his  in- 
spiration. He  published,  as  sermons  of  Brigham  Young  and 
others,  a  lot  of  senseless  stuff,  which  anyone  acquainted  with 
those  men  and  their  style  of  address  would  have  recognized  as 
spurious.  The  Bowles  Supplement  was  looked  upon  as  part 
of  the  Colfax  war  program,  broadly  hinted  at  in  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent's significant  question:  "Will  Brigham  Young  fight?" 

Proposed  Anti-"Mormon"  Legislation. — The  sentiment 
prevailing  at  the  capital  of  the  Nation  favored  the  introduction 
into  Congress  of  the  Cragin  and  Cullom  bills,  which,  though 
they  did  not  become  law,  created  as  much  agitation  as  if  they 
had  been  placed  upon  the  statute  books.  They  were  similar 
to,  though  severer  than,  the  Wade  Bill,  which  had  previously 
failed  of  passage.  These  measures  had  been  framed  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  sent  to  Washington  to  be  fathered  by  the  dis- 
tinguished gentlemen  whose  names  they  bore. 

The  Cragin  Bill. — Senator  Aaron  H.  Cragin,  of  New 
Hampshire,  introduced  his  bill  early  in  December,  1869.  It 
proposed  to  give  the  Governor  of  Utah  the  sole  right  to  select, 
appoint,  and  commission  all  officers  of  the  Territory,  except 
constables;  to  abolish  trial  by  jury  in  polygamous  cases,  and 
make  it  criminal  for  a  "Mormon"  to  solemnize  any  marriage, 
or  even  to  be  present  at  a  plural  marriage  ceremony.  The 
Governor  was  to  be  virtually  the  Trustee-in-Trust  for  the 
"Mormon"  Church.  The  bill  contemplated  the  abolition  of 
the  offices  of  Territorial  Marshal  and  Attorney  General,  and 


MODERN   GUELL<   AND  GHIBELLINE.          243 

the  placing  of  their  duties  upon  the  United  States  Marshal  and 
District  Attorney.  It  likewise  proposed  to  repeal  all  legisla- 
tion inconsistent  with  itself,  and  make  unlawful  the  assembling 
of  the  Legislature  or  the  holding  of  an  election  under  the  au- 
thority of  the  State  of  Deseret.* 

The  Cullom  Bill. — The  Cullom  Bill,  taking  its  name  from 
General  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  of  Illinois,  was  introduced  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  a  few  days  after  the  Cragin  Bill 
came  before  the  Senate.  It  was  even  more  radical  than  its 
twin  measure.  Having  passed  the  House,  it  was  adopted  by 
Mr.  Cragin  in  lieu  of  his  own  protege,  and  presented  by  him 
in  the  Senate.  The  real  and  avowed  author  of  the  Cullom 
Bill  was  Robert  N.  Baskin,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  the  human 
mainspring  of  nearly  every  "Anti-Mormon"  movement  that 
Utah  has  known. 

Among  those  who  spoke  against  the  measure  in  Congress 
were  Representative  Thomas  Fitch,  of  Nevada,  and  Represen- 
tative Samuel  B.  Axtell,  of  California.  Both  these  gentlemen 
afterwards  became  residents  of  Utah,  Mr.  Fitch  as  a  leading 
member  of  the  Bar,  and  Mr.  Axtell  as  Governor  of  the  Ter- 
ritory. Delegate  Hooper  made  a  speech  against  the  Cullom 
Bill  on  the  day  that  it  passed  the  House. 

In  Utah  the  proposed  legislation  awoke  a  storm  of  indig- 
nant protest,  the  most  notable  feature  of  which  was  a  mass 
meeting  of  "Mormon"  women,  held  in  the  Salt  Lake  Taber- 
nacle, about  the  middle  of  January,  1870.  Speeches  were  made 
and  resolutions  adopted  against  the  pending  measure.  This 
meeting  was  but  one  of  many  that  convened  in  various  parts 
of  the  Territory,  all  protesting  against  the  passage  of  the 
Cullom  Bill. 

Some  of  the  "Godbeites"  had  plural  families,  and  were 
therefore  vitally  interested  in  the  issue.  They,  with  a  number 
of  prominent  "Gentiles,"  disfavored  certain  features  of  the 
Cullom  Bill,  and  at  a  meeting  where  its  modification  was  pro- 
posed, Joseph  R.  Walker,  J.  M.  Carter,  Samuel  Kahn,  R.  H. 
Robertson,  Warren  N.  Hussey,  Thomas  Marshall  and  O.  J. 
Hollister  were  appointed  a  committee  to  memorialize  Congress 

*The  State  of  Deseret  here  referred  to,  should  not  be  confounded 
with  the  Provisional  Government  of  1849-1851.  Its  existence  was  but 
nominal,  and  dated  only  from  1862.  The  messages  of  Governor 
Brigham  Young  were  regularly  presented  to  the  General  Assembly, 
which  adopted  as  its  own  the  laws  passed  by  each  session  of  the  Ter- 
ritorial Legislature.  The  object  in  view  was  to  have  all  the  necessary 
machinery  ready  whenever  the  Territory  might  be  admitted  into  the 
Union  as  a  State.  The  "Anti-Mormons"  charged  that  the  Provisional 
Government  which  Congress  had  refused  to  recognize,  was  thus  de- 
fiantly perpetuated,  and  the  political  capital  made  out  of  the  situation 
finally  induced  a  discontinuance  of  the  theoretical  State  of  Deseret. 


2A4      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OK  UTAH. 

to  that  end.  Colonel  Hollister,  a  relative  by  marriage  of  Vice 
President  Colfax,  declined  to  act,  and  Bishop  Tuttle,  of  the 
Episcopal  Church,  took  his  place  upon  the  committee. 

Moreover,  as  stated  by  Tullidge,  the  "Godbeite"  historian, 
the  head  of  the  New  Movement  went  to  Washington  and  dis- 
cussed matters  with  President  Grant,  to  whom  he  was  intro- 
duced by  Vice  President  Colfax.  Mr.  Godbe  importuned  for 
kindly  treatment  of  the  "Mormon"  people  by  the  General  Gov- 
ernment. The  President  replied  that  he  was  as  anxious  as  any- 
one to  save  the  "Mormon"  people — save  them  from  their  lead- 
ers, and  that  if  more  troops  were  sent  to  Utah  (for  such  a 
movement  was  contemplated)  they  would  be  designed  merely 
as  "a  moral  force,"  to  support  the  administration  of  the  laws. 
Mr.  Godbe  also  met  General  Cullom,  and  placed  the  situation 
before  him  in  such  a  light  as  to  cause  him  to  consider  less  fa- 
vorably the  severe  measure  for  which  he  stood  sponsor.  Mean- 
while, the  Cullom  Bill  had  been  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Territories,  of  which  Senator  Nye,  of  Nevada,  was  chairman. 
That  was  the  last  heard  of  it.  It  was  never  reported  from  the 
committee. 

The  Liberal  Party. — The  Liberal  or  Independent  Party— 
for  the  latter  was  its  original  name — entered  upon  its  actual 
career  in  February,  1870,  when  a  meeting  for  its  organization 
was  held  in  the  Masonic  Hall,  Salt  Lake  City.  Eli  B.  Kelsey, 
"Godbeite"  and  polygamist,  was  elected  chairman,  after  which 
speeches  were  made  and  plans  formulated  for  the  approaching 
municipal  election.  A  ticket  was  nominated  by  acclamation. 
Some  of  the  nominees  were  "Mormons,"  firm  in  the  faith, 
whose  names  were  expected  to  draw  votes  from  the  ranks  of 
the  People's  Party.  The  personal  popularity  of  one  of  the  se- 
ceders — Henry  W.  Lawrence,  Independent  candidate  for 
Mayor — was  relied  upon  to  do  much  in  that  direction.  These 
matters  arranged,  the  meeting  adjourned  until  next  evening, 
February  10th,  when  it  re-convened  in  Walker  Brothers'  "Old 
Store." 

The  People's  Coup  d'Etat. — The  Independents  held  their 
second  gathering  to  ratify  the  nominations  made  at  the  first, 
and  the  general  public  was  invited  to  attend.  "Come  one, 
come  all,"  was  the  wording  of  the  widely  posted  placard  urging 
the  people  of  Salt  Lake  City  to  be  present.  "The  People"  mis- 
chievously took  them  at  their  word,  thronging  the  hall  at  an 
early  hour  and  voting  in  their  own  chairman  and  secretary. 
Over  the  heads  of  the  discomfited  and  exasperated  minority, 
the  crowd  nominated  a  full  ticket  for  city  officers,  heading  the 
list  with  the  name  of  Daniel  H.  Wells,  the  People's  candidate 
for  Mayor,  an  office  already  held  by  him.  The  meeting  then 
adjourned. 


MODERN   GUELF  AND  GHIBELL1NE.  245 

This  practical  joke — for  nothing  more  serious  was  in- 
tended— might  have  had  a  tragic  termination.  It  was  certainly 

ill-timed    and    imprudent,    and  

like  all  such  "pleasantries,"  was 
pleasant  only  to  the  perpetra- 
tors. Construed  and  pro- 
claimed as  an  act  of  intoler- 
ance, it  could  not  fail  to  be 
hurtful  to  the  People's  cause. 
Doubtless  some  of  the  Inde- 
pendents, even  while  denounc- 
ing it,  were  secretly  glad  of 
its  occurrence,  being  shrewd 
enough  to  see  the  advantage 
that  it  would  give  them  when 
heralded  abroad.  The  actual 
damage  done — a  few  broken 
benches,  etc. —  was  promptly 
repaired  by  direction  of  the 
People's  Party  leaders.  That 
they  approved  of  the  incident, 
is  altogether  improbable.  There 
was  no  further  disposition  to 
interfere  with  the  new  party, 
and  their  proper  ticket  was 
duly  placed  before  the  public. 

The  Salt  Lake  City  Election. — The  election  fell  upon  the 
14th  of  February.  Two  thousand  three  hundred  and  one  votes 
were  cast,  of  which  number  the  Independent  ticket  drew  about 
three  hundred;  all  the  rest  going  to  the  People's  candidates. 
The  leaders  of  the  minority  party  complained  of  numerous 
obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  of  those  desirous  of  voting  their 
ticket,  and  of  various  annoyances  to  which  their  challengers 
had  been  subjected,  adding:  "Without  these,  and  the  existing 
law  of  the  Territory,  compelling  the  numbering  and  identi- 
fying of  each  vote — a  system  practically  robbing  every  citizen 
of  his  freedom  of  ballot — the  result  would  have  been  far  dif- 
ferent." They  regarded  their  "commencement  in  the  great 
work  of  vindicating  the  rights  of  free  speech,  free  thought,  and 
a  free  press  in  this  Territory,  a  promising  one."  Such  was  the 
substance  of  their  report  to  the  Tribune. 

The  Deseret  News  stated  that  all  voters  cast  their  ballots 
as  they  desired,  and  that  the  conduct  of  the  election  was  such 
as  to  give  no  just  cause  for  complaint.  The  News  might  have 
added  that  there  was  no  temptation  to  a  contrary  course  on 
the  part  of  the  overwhelming  majority.  The  People  stood  in 
no  fear  of  the  Independent  vote.  The  complaint  of  their  op- 


246      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ponents  as  to  "obstacles"  and  "annoyances"  had  a  basis,  more 
apparent  than  real,  in  the  refusal  by  Mayor  Wells  of  a  request 
from  the  Chairman  of  the  Independent  Committee,  J.  M.  Orr, 
who  had  asked,  just  before  the  election  and  after  all  arrange- 
ments had  been  decided,  that  one  of  the  judges  and  one  of 
the  clerks  be  chosen  from  the  ranks  of  the  new  party.  The 
Mayor  was  not  willing  to  disarrange  matters  to  that  extent, 
but  assured  the  Chairman  that  every  protection  would  be  af- 
forded the  citizens  to  vote  their  respective  tickets,  without 
partiality  or  hindrance. 

The  Marked  Ballot.— The  "marked  ballot"  referred  to 
by  the  minority  party,  prevented  frauds  and  insured  honest 
elections.  That,  no  doubt,  was  its  purpose.  At  the  same  time 
it  afforded  opportunity  for  espionage,  if  those  in  charge  of  the 
election  machinery  cared  to  take  advantage  of  it.  They  could 
know,  if  they  wished,  for  whom  each  voter  cast  his  ballot.  This 
fact  being  recognized  by  the  Legislature,  the  old  election  law 
was  repealed  ere  long,  and  the  marked  ballot  superseded  by 
the  secret  ballot. 

The  Convention  at  Corinne. — In  this  manner  arose  the 
Liberal  Party  of  Utah,  though  it  was  not  known  by  that  name 
until  the  following  July,  when  a  convention  of  Independents 
assembled  at  the  "Gentile"  City  of  Corinne,  and  nominated 
George  R.  Maxwell  for  Congress.  General  Connor  was  tem- 
porary chairman  of  the  Convention,  and  he  nominated  Max- 
well for  Delegate.  By  formal  action  of  that  political  gathering, 
the  Liberal  Party  received  its  name. 

Maxwell  Defeated. — Election  day  was  the  first  of  August. 
Over  twenty  thousand  votes  were  cast  for  Captain  Hooper, 
the  People's  candidate,  and  a  little  over  one  thousand  for  the 
Liberal  nominee.  More  than  eight  hundred  of  the  latter  were 
polled  at  Corinne;  Salt  Lake  City  giving  less  than  two  hun- 
dred votes  to  General  Maxwell.  Nevertheless  he  contested  the 
seat,  basing  his  claim,  as  Mr.  McGrorty  had  done,  upon  the 
ground  of  his  opponent's  alleged  disloyalty.  Captain  Hooper 
was  put  to  the  trouble  of  refuting  many  sensational  stories, 
after  which  he  was  permitted  to  take  his  seat  in  the  Llouse  of 
Representatives  as  the  duly  elected  Delegate  from  the  Terri- 
tory of  Utah. 


XXL 

ATTEMPTS   AT   RECONSTRUCTION. 

1870-1871. 

The  Foremost  Citizen. — Brigham  Young,  so  long  as  he 
lived,  was  the  foremost  citizen  of  Utah.  Not  in  an  official  way, 
but  by  virtue  of  his  ability  and  commanding  influence.  His 
position  as  President  of  a  Church  comprising  most  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Territory,  gave  him  much  of  his  prestige,  but 
not  all.  He  was  by  nature  a  leader  of  men,  with  a  genius  for 
organization  and  government.  Moreover,  he  possessed  strong 
personal  magnetism.  The  "Anti-Mormons"  deemed  him  tyran- 
nical. Not  so,  the  Latter-day  Saints.  To  them  he  was  a 
Prophet  of  God,  and  they  revered  him  accordingly.  One  fact 
concerning  him  may  yet  be  apparent  to  all.  Had  this  great 
pioneer  and  colonizer — the  greatest  that  America  has  known — 
been  less  masterful,  or  less  influential,  he  could  never  have 
accomplished  the  gigantic  task  that  destiny  had  laid  upon  him. 

That  some  people  should  object  to  the  wielding  of  so  much 
power  by  a  private  citizen,  was  only  natural.  Federal  officers, 
sent  to  Utah  from  other  parts  of  the  country,  felt  themselves 
slighted  and  the  Government  wronged  on  account  of  the  hom- 
age paid  to  the  founder  of  the  commonwealth.  To  diminish 
his  influence,  therefore,  they  considered  a  patriotic  duty. 

The  "War  Governor." — Among  those  bent  upon  a  policy 
of  curtailment  with  reference  to  the.  "Mormon"  leader,  was 
Utah's  "War  Governor,"  J.  Wilson  Shaffer,  whose  peaceful 
predecessor,  Governor  Durkee,  at  the  expiration  of  his  official 
term,  had  left  the  Territory  and  was  on  his  way  back  to  Wis- 
consin, when  he  died  at  Omaha,  Nebraska,  late  in  1869. 
Shaffer's  appointment  soon  followed,  and  on  the  20th  of  March 
1870,  he  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City.  General  Shaffer  was  a 
native  of  Pennsylvania,  but  had  been  for  many  years  a  resident 
of  Illinois.  During  the  Civil  War  he  was  General  Butler's 
chief  of  staff,  serving  his  country  with  courage  and  fidelity. 
He  was  now  in  his  forty-third  year,  an  invalid  slowly  dying, 
but  a  man  of  iron  will,  aggressive  and  determined.  He  looked 
upon  Utah  as  he  had  looked  upon  the  rebellious  Southern 
States.  Here  as  well  as  there,  he  thought,  there  was 'need  of 
"reconstruction."  "Never,  after  me,"  he  exclaimed,  upon  re- 
ceiving his  appointment,  "shall  it  be  said  that  Brigham  Young 
is  Governor  of  Utah." 

Shaffer's  Associates. — Governor  Shaffer's  associates  in  this 
Territory  were  mostly,  if  not  all,  outside  the  "Mormon"  com- 


248      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


tnunity.  True,  he  accepted,  soon  after  his  arrival  from  the 
East,  an  invitation  from  President  Young  to  attend  the  Latter- 
day  Saints'  Annual  Conference, 
which  was  held  that  year  in 
May,  instead  of  April,  the  usual 
month  of  its  occurrence.  He 
was  present  on  the  stand  at  one 
of  the  meetings  in  the  Taber- 
nacle, but  did  not  address  the 
congregation,  though  invited  to 
do  so.  Holding  aloof  from  those 
representing  the  great  majority 
of  the  people,  he  affiliated  al- 
most exclusively  with  their 
political  and  religious  oppo- 
nents.* 

"Godbeite"  Influence.— Ac- 
cording to  Tullidge,  the  "God- 
beites"  used  their  influence 
with  Governor  Shaffer,  as  they 
had  previously  used  it  with 
President  Grant,  in  behalf  of 
their  former  co-religionists. 
That  writer  relates  a  conversa- 
tion in  which  Eli  B.  Kelsey  laid 
his  case  and  that  of  other  polygamists  before  the  Governor, 
showing  that  if  harsh  measures  were  employed  in  dealing  with 
plural  marriage,  much  suffering  would  result,  especially  to 
plural  wives  and  their  children,  the  class  who,  in  popular  be- 
lief, were  to  be  most  benefited  by  the  proposed  change.  "Gov- 
ernor," said  Kelsey,  "before  I  will  forsake  my  wives  and  bas- 
tardize my  children,  I  will  fight  the  United  States  down  to  my 
boots.  What  would  you  do,  if  you  were  in  my  place?" 
Shaffer  was  silent  for  a  few  moments,  during  which  he  paced 
his  room  thoughtfully.  He  then  responded:  "By  G — ,  Mr. 
Kelsey,  were  I  in  your  place,  I  would  do  the  same." 

*The  Governor's  headquarters  were  at  the  Revere  House,  where 
he  literally  "fell  among  thieves;"  though  that,  of  course,  was  not  from 
choice.  The  proprietor  of  the  hotel,  William  H.  McKay,  turned  out 
to  be  a  mail  robber.  In  company  with  two  other  men — St.  Ledger,  a 
transient,  and  one  Heath,  a  former  U.  S.  soldier,  he  waylaid  the  stage 
coach  from  Pioche,  Nevada,  between  Levan  and  Nephi,  Utah,  on  the 
night  of  October  23,  1870,  and  robbed  Wells  Fargo  Company's  treasure 
box  of  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  Sheriff  Cazier,  of  Juab  County, 
organized  a  posse  and  captured  the  robbers  next  day,  recovering  from 
them  all  the  stolen  money.  St.  Ledger  turned  state's  evidence  and 
secured  his  release;  Heath  escaped;  but  McKay  was  convicted  in  the 
District  Court  and  sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment.  This  was 
the  first  mail  coach  robberv  in  Utah. 


GOVERNOR  SHAFFER. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION.  249 

Woman's  Suffrage — Acting  Governor  Mann. — A  source  of 
annoyance  to  the  new  Executive  was  an  act  of  the  Legislative 
Assembly  giving  the  women  of  the  Territory  the  elective  fran- 
chise. Wyoming  had  recently  adopted  Woman's  Suffrage,  and 
Utah  was  a  close  second  in  conferring  upon  her  daughters  this 
important  privilege.  It  was  the  answer  of  the  "Mormon"  men 
to  the  charge  that  the  "Mormon"  women  were  downtrodden 
and  held  in  subjection.  The  measure  had  been  approved  by 
Secretary  S.  A.  Mann,  as  Acting  Governor,  on  the  12th  of 
February,  several  weeks  before  Shaffer  arrived  at  Salt  Lake 
City.  The  Governor  and  his  advisers  feared  that  the  woman 
vote  would  strengthen  "The  Mormon  Power;"  and  they  there- 
fore regarded  the  granting  of  the  franchise  as  a  move  in  the 
wrong  direction.  Through  their  influence  Secretary  Mann 
was  removed  from  office;  Vernon  H.  Vaughn,  of  Alabama, 
being  appointed  in  his  stead.  Mr.  Mann,  who  was  from  New 
York,  and  had  been  Secretary  of  Utah  since  May,  1869,  re- 
mained to  practice  law  at  Salt  Lake  City. 

Chief  Justice  Wilson. — Another  retirement,  through  sim- 
ilar causes,  was  that  of  Chief  Justice  Charles  C.  Wilson,  who, 
since  September.  1868,  when  he  arrived  from  Illinois,  had  been 
presiding  over  the  Third  District  Court.  His  alleged  offense 
was  the  exercise  of  too  much  leniency  in  the  matter  of  ad- 
mitting "Mormon"  aliens  to  citizenship.  Moreover,  he  had 
incurred  the  ill  will  of  Governor  Shaffer.  There  had  been 
some  disagreement  between  the  Governor  and  the  Probate 
Judges,  and  the  latter  appealed  to  Wilson  for  advice.  He  in- 
structed them  to  disregard  Shaffer's  rules  and  consult  the  law 
as  to  their  duties.  "Whereupon,"  said  the  Chief  Justice,  in  a 
newspaper  account  of  the  affair,  "he  swore  to  remove  me,  and 
removed  I  am."  This  was  in  July,  1870,  the  same  month  that 
Secretary  Mann  went  out  of  office.* 


^According  to  the  Salt  Lake  Herald,  the  Governor  had  refused 
to  commission  certain  officers  elected  by  the  Legislature,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  forcing  his  action  with  a  writ  of  mandamus  was  under  con- 
sideration. Shaffer  asked  Wilson  if  he  would  issue  such  a  writ.  The 
Judge  replied  that  he  would  if  a  case  were  made  out.  The  Governor 
then  said:  "Well,  I  like  that!" — which  meant,  of  course,  that  he  did 
not  like  it — "I  am  sent  here  to  regulate  things,  and  I  am  to  be  con- 
trolled by  a  judge."  "I  beg  pardon,  Governor,"  answered  the  Chief 
Justice,  "it  strikes  me  that  you  are  to  be  controlled  by  law." 

Don  Piatt,  Washington  correspondent  of  "The  Cincinnati  'Com- 
mercial," was  present  at  an  interview  when  President  Grant  gave  as 
the  reason  for  Judge  Wilson's  removal  that  "Governor  Shaffer  wished 
it."  Another  account  is  to  the  effect  that  Wilson's  friends,  upon  in- 
quiring as  to  the  cause  of  his  displacement,  were  told  by  President 
Grant  that  "General  Shaffer's  staff  mii:t  be  a  unit."  See  Roberts' 
History  of  the  Mormon  Church,  "Americana"  for  August,  1914.  p.  681, 
notes  3  and  4,  also  p.  688. 


250      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


A  New  Military  Post. — Preliminary  to  the  sending  of  ad- 
ditional troops  to  Utah,  General  Sheridan  made  a  special  visit 
to  the  Territory,  for  the  purpose  of  founding  a  new  military 
post.  "Do  nothing  without  consulting  Mr.  Godbe  and  his 
friends,"  President  Grant  is  said  to  have  enjoined  upon  the 
General,  when  the  latter  set  out  for  Salt  Lake  City.  Accord- 
ingly Sheridan  met  with  the  leaders  of  the  New  Movement  im- 
mediately after  his  arrival.  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that 
had  anything  to  do  with  locating  the  military  post, 

a  site  for  which  had  been  se- 
lected by  General  Augur,  Com- 
mander of  the  Department  of 
the  Platte,  a  short  time  before. 
It  was  about  three  miles  north- 
west from  Provo,  between  the 
Bench  and  Utah  Lake.  There 
Camp  Rawlins,  named  after  the 
Secretary  of  War,  was  founded 
in  April,  1870.  At  first  it  was 
occupied  by  a  detachment  of 
troops  from  Camp  Douglas,  but 
these  were  soon  withdrawn  and 
several  companies  from  the 
East  stationed  there. 

The  Pratt-Newman  Dis- 
cussion.— During  the  summer 
of  that  year,  an  event  of  un- 
usual interest  occurred  at  the 
Utah  capital,  and  for  several 
days  held  the  attention  of  the 
country  at  large.  It  was  a  debate  between  Dr.  John  P.  New- 
man, Chaplain  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  Elder  Orson 
Pratt,  one  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Latter-day  Saints,  upon  the  question,  "Does  the  Bible  Sanc- 
tion Polygamy?"  Dr.  Newman,  who  was  Pastor  of  the 
Metropolitan  Methodist  Church  in  Washington,  had  preached 
against  polygamy  before  President  Grant  and  other  leading 
men,  while  Congress  was  considering  the  Cullom  Bill.  His 
sermon  was  published  in  the  New  York  Herald,  and  replied  to 
by  Elder  Pratt ;  parts  of  the  controversy  being  republished  in 
the  Deseret  News.  Edward  L.  Sloan,  acting  editor  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Daily  Telegraph,  which  had  passed  into  non-"Mor- 
mon"  hands  and  was  about  to  suspend  publication,  suggested 
in  one  of  the  issues  of  that  paper  that  Dr.  Newman  was  wast- 
ing his  ammunition  by  preaching  against  plural  marriage  in 
Washington,  and  might  better  come  to  Utah  and  discuss  the 
question  in  public  with  Orson  Pratt  or  some  other  prominent 


GENERAL  SHERIDAN. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION.  251 

"Mormon,"  in  the  largest  hall  available.  This  banter,  Dr. 
Newman  construed  as  a  challenge  from  Brigham  Young,  to 
discuss  polygamy  with  him  in  the  great  Tabernacle.  Accord- 
ingly he  came,  accompanied  by  Reverend  Dr.  Sunderland,  and 
was  much  chagrined,  upon  arriving,  to  learn  that  President 
Young  had  given  no  such  challenge  and  did  not  intend  to  de- 
bate with  him.  A  spirited  interchange  of  letters  followed,  and 
it  was  then  arranged  that  a  discussion  should  take  place  in  the 
Tabernacle,  but  with  Orson  Pratt  as  the  "Mormon"  champion. 

"Does  the  Bible  Sanction  Polygamy?"— The  Pratt-New- 
man  discussion  began  at  2  p.  m.,  on  Friday  the  12th  of  August, 
and  continued  during  the  two  succeeding  afternoons.  Three 
umpires  presided,  though  only  to  preserve  order  and  insure  fair 
play;  it  being  understood  that  no  decision  would  be  rendered. 
The  umpires  were  Judge  Zerubbabel  Snow — chosen  by  Elder 
Pratt;  Associate  Justice  Cyrus  M.  Hawley — selected  by  Dr. 
Newman ;  and  United  States  Marshal  M.  T.  Patrick,  who  was 
agreed  upon  by  the  other  umpires.  Immense  throngs  attended 
the  debate,  which  was  continued  in  the  newspapers  for  some- 
time afterwards. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  public  opinion  was  divide  over  the 
result.  Both  men  were  learned;  and  Newman  was  the  more 
eloquent;  but  Pratt  proved  to  be  the  better  logician.  As  a 
scriptorian  he  was  equal,  and  as  a  Hebrew  scholar  superior,  to 
his  opponent.  Leading  American  newspapers  expressed  the 
view  that  the  Chaplain  of  the  Senate  was  "out  of  his  depth  in 
the  discussion,"  and  that  someone  "carrying  more  guns  than 
Dr.  Newman"  would  "have  to  be  sent  out  missionarying  among 
the  Mormons."  The  Philadelphia  Press  conceded  to  Elder 
Pratt  "a  most  effective  argument,"  and  declared  that  force 
alone  could  settle  the  "Mormon"  question. 

Governor  Shaffer  and  the  Nauvoo  Legion. — Governor 
Shaffer,  as  stated,  had  determined  to  limit  what  he  considered 
the  abnormal  power  wielded  by  Citizen  Brigham  Young.  Gen- 
eral Babcock,  in  reporting  to  Secretary  of  War  Stanton  (Octo- 
ber 1866),  had  represented  that  the  Utah  Militia,  instead  of  be- 
ing under  the  control  of  the  Governor,  was  under  the  authority 
of  the  Church  or  Brigham  Youn^ ;  and  President  Lincoln 
seems  to  have  been  under  a  like  impression  when,  in  April 
1862,  he  called  upon  the  Ex-Governor  for  a  company  of  cav- 
alrv.  to  guard  the  Overland  Route.  Next  to  the  Governor, 
Lieutenant-General  Wells  was  the  chief  militia  officer,  and  he, 
being  Brigham  Young's  second  counselor  in  the  First  Pres:- 
dency,  was  looked  upon  as  one  with  the  head  of  the  Church. 
To  lessen  the  power  of  General  Wells,  therefore,  was  to  di- 
minish the  power  of  President  Young.  So  reasoned  "The 
War  Governor." 


252      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

General  Wells,  on  the  16th  of  August,  1870,  ordered  the 
usual  fall  musters  of  "The  Nauvoo  Legion" — as  the  militia 
was  still  titled — to  be  held  in  the  various  military  districts, 
not  later  than  the  first  of  November.  Governor  Shaffer  was 
absent  from  the  Territory  when  this  order  was  issued,  but 
immediately  upon  his  return  he  countermanded  it,  forbidding 
the  militia  to  muster  or  train  without  orders  from  the  Gov- 
ernor or  the  United  States  Marshal.  By  proclamation  dated 
September  15th  he  appointed  P.  E.  Connor  Major  General, 
and  William  N.  Johns  Colonel  and  Assistant  Adjutant  Gen- 
eral, and  directed  that  all  arms  and  munitions  belonging  to  the 
Territory  or  to  the  United  States  then  in  possession  of  the 
militia,  be  delivered  to  the  last-named  officer  without  delay. 

General  Wells  wrote  to  Governor  Shaffer,  requesting  a 
suspension  of  .the  order  prohibiting  the  musters  until  Novem- 
ber 20th,  so  as  to  enable  Adjutant  General  Clawson  to  make  a 
complete  report  of  the  militia  and  fully  comply  with  the  terms 
of  the  proclamation  respecting  the  delivery  of  arms  and  mu- 
nitions. The  Governor,  however,  refused  to  modify  his  order. 
He  answered  General  Wells  as  follows: 

Governor  Shaffer  to  General  Wells. — 

"Executive  Department,  Utah  Territory, 

Salt  Lake  City,  October  27,  1870. 
Daniel  H.  Wells,  Esq. 

I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  communica- 
tion of  yesterdaj,  in  which  you  sign  youiself  "Lieutenant-General  com- 
manding the  militia  of  Utah  Territory."  As  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  orovide  for  but  one  Lieutenant-General,  and  as  the  incumbent 
of  that  office  is  the  distinguished  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  I  shall  certainly 
be  pardoned  for  recognizing  no  other. 

In  your  communication  you  addressed  me  as  "Commander-m- 
Chief  of  the  militia  of  Utah  Territory."  It  is  now  twenty  years  since 
the  act  to  organize  this  Territory  was  passed  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  and,  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  this  is  the  first  instance 
in  which  you,  or  any  of  your  predecessors,  in  the  pretended  office 
which  you  assume  to  hold,  have  recognized  the  Governor  of  this  Ter- 
ritory to  be,  as  the  Organic  Act  makes  him,  the  Commander-in-Chief, 
etc.  My  predecessors  have  been  contemptuously  ignored,  or  boldly 
defied.  I  congratulate  you  and  the  loyal  people  here,  and  elsewhere, 
on  the  significant  change  in  your  conduct. 

You  do  me  the  honor  to  ask  me  to  suspend  the  operation  of  my 
proclamation  of  September  15th,  1870,  prohibiting  all  musters,  drills, 
etc.  In  other  words,  you  ask  me  to  recognize  an  unlawful  military 
system,  which  was  originally  organized  in  Nauvoo,  in  the  State  of 
Illinois,  and  which  has  existed  here  without  authority  of  the  United 
States,  and  in  defiance  of  the  Federal  officials. 

You  say:  "Whereas,  to  stop  the  musters  now,  neither  the  terms  of 
the  proclamation,  the  laws  of  the  Territory,  nor  the  laws  of  Congress, 
etc.,  could  be  complied  with."  That  is,  my  proclamation  cannot  be 
carried  out  unless  I  let  you  violate  it.  Laws  of  the  Territory  which 
conflict  with  the  laws  of  Congress  must  fall  to  the  ground  unless  I 
permit  you  to  uphold  them,  and  the  laws  of  Congress  cannot  be  com- 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION.  253 

plied  with  unless  I  will  let  you  interpret  and  nullify  them!     To  state 
the  proposition  is  to  answer  it. 

Mr.  Wells,  you  know  as  well  as  I  do,  that  the  people  of  this  Ter- 
ritory, most  of  whom  were  foreign-born,  and  are  ill-acquainted  with 
our  institutions,  have  been  taught  to  regard  certain  private  citizens 
here  as  superior  in  authority  not  only  to  the  Federal  officials  here, 
but  also  in  Washington.  Even  since  my  proclamation  was  issued,  and 
on  a  public  occasion,  and  in  presence  of  many  thousands  of  his  fol- 
lowers, Brigham  Young,  who  claims  to  be,  and  is  called,  "President," 
denounced  the  Federal  officials  of  this  Territory  with  bitter  vehemence, 
and  on  a  like  occasion,  about  the  same  time,  and  in  his  (Young's)  pres- 
ence, one  of  his  most  conspicuous  followers  declared  that  Congress 
had  no  right  whatever  to  pass  an  organic  act  for  this  Territory;  that 
such  was  a  relic  of  colonial  barbarism,  and  that  not  one  of  the  Federal 
officials  had  any  right  to  come  to,  or  remain  in,  this  Territory. 

Mr.  Wells,  you  ask  me  to  take  a  course  which,  in  effect,  would  aid 
you  and  your  turbulent  associates  to  further  convince  your  followers 
that  you  and  your  associates  are  more  powerful  than  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. I  must  decline. 

To  suspend  the  operation  of  mv  proclamation  now,  would  be  a 
greater  dereliction  of  my  duty  than  not  to  have  issued  it. 

Without  authority  from  me  you  issued  an  order  in  your  assumed 
capacity  of  lieutenant-general,  etc.,  calling  out  the  militia  of  this  Ter- 
ritory to  muster,  and  now  you  virtually  ask  me  to  ratify  your  act. 

Sir,  I  will  not  dp  anything  in  satisfaction  of  your  officious  and 
unwarranted  assumption. 

By  the  provisions  of  the  Organic  Act,  the  Governor  is  made  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  militia  of  the  Territory,  and,  sir,  as  long  as 
I  continue  to  hold  that  office,  a  force  so  important  as  that  of  the  militia 
shall  not  be  wielded  or  controlled  in  disregard  of  my  authority,  which, 
by  law,  and  by  my  obligation,  it  is  my  plain  duty  not  only  to  assert, 
but,  if  possible,  to  maintain. 

I  hope  the  above  is  sufficiencly  explicit  to  be.  fully  understood,  and 
to  supersede  the  necessity  of  any  further  communication  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  etc., 

(Signed)  J.  W.  SHAFFER, 

Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  Utah  Territory." 

General  Wells  to  Governor  Shaffer. — In  "An  Open  Letter 
to  Governor  Shaffer,"  published  in  the  Deseret  News,  General 
Wells  presented  the  following  points  of  reply : 

1.  The  law  of  Congress  providing  for  one  Lieutenant- 
General  also  provides  for  five  Major  Generals  and  eight  Brig- 
adier Generals.    Does  the  Governor  mean  to  imply  that  these 
positions  in  the  regular  army  preclude  the  recognition  of  Major 
Generals  and  Brigadier  Generals  of  militia  in  any  of  the  States 
or  Territories? 

2.  Other  laws  of  Congress  limit  the  number  of  Assistant 
Adjutant-Generals,  and  forbid  new  appointments,  until  further 
notice,  in  the  Adjutant  General's  Department.    These  laws  also 
provide  for  the  election  by  the  people  of  all  general  militia  of- 
ficers in  the  Territories,  in  such  manner  as  the  respective  Leg- 
islatures shall  provide.    If  these  are  the  only  laws  of  Congress 


254      WHITNEY'S  POL'l'LAU  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

that  obtain  in  Utah,  how  can  Governor  Shaffer  reconcile  with 
them  his  appointment  of  a  Major  General  and  an  Assistant 
Adjutant  General  of  militia  by  proclamation? 

3.  The  office  of  Lieutenant  General  in  this  Territory  is 
not  a  "pretended  office,"  as  Governor  Shaffer's  defective  infor- 
mation has  made  him  believe,  but  an  office  created  by  the  Utah 
Legislature  in  February,  1852,  and  not  transported  from  Illi- 
nois, as  erroneously  asserted.     Moreover,  General  Wells  has 
never  had  any  ''predecessor"  in  this  office  since  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Territory. 

4.  Governor  Shaffer  is  either  "strangely  ignorant"  or  he 
"wilfully  misrepresents,"  when  he  declares  that  this  is  the  "first 
instance"  in   which   General  Wells  has  recognized  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Utah  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Territorial  Mili- 
tia.    For  eight  years  he  recognized  Governor  Brigham  Young 
in  that  capacity,  and  has  recognized  all  succeeding  Governors 
in  the  same  way.     Furthermore,  they  have  recognized  him  as 
Lieutenant  General,  and  he  has  been  acknowledged  as  such  in 
all  official  correspondence  with  officers  of  the  regular  army, 
and  by  Federal  officers  in  and  out  of  the  Territory.    Governor 
Shaffer  stands  distinguished  as  the  first  who,  in  reply  to  a 
respectful  communication,  has  so  far  forgotten  what  is  due 
from  a  man  holding  his  position  as  to  ignore  the  common  cour- 
tesies always  extended  between  gentlemen. 

General  Wells  went  on  to  say  that  he  had  requested  the 
temporary  suspension  of  the  decree  forbidding  the  musters,  in 
order  that  complete  returns  of  the  militia  might  be  made  in 
accordance  with  an  Act  of  Congress,  approved  March  20, 
1803.  How  this  could  be  construed  as  an  attempt  to  "nullify" 
the  laws  of  Congress  escaped  his  penetration.  It  appeared  to 
him  that  Governor  Shaffer's  proclamation  was  calculated  .to 
produce  that  result.  As  for  the  alleged  conflict  between  the 
laws  of  the  Territory  and  the  acts  of  Congress,  that  was  mere 
assertion,  incapable  of  proof. 

In  allusion  to  what  had  been  said  in  public  meetings, 
General  Wells  declared  that  public  officers  were  supposed  to 
be  public  property,  so  far  as  their  official  acts  were  concerned, 
and  subject  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  people.  "Fvery  man  under 
our  Government,"  said  he,  "has  the  right  to  free  speech,  and 
to  express  his  opinions  concerning  the  acts  of  public  officers — 
a  right,  moreover,  which  is  generally  indulged  in  by  all  parties. 
I  am  not  aware  that  President  Brigham  Young  has  'denounced 
the  Federal  officials  of  this  Territory  with  bitter  vehemence,' 
or  that  if  he  has,  I  am  responsible  therefor,  or  that  I  shouVl 
be  held  responsible  for  the  opinion  of  any  other  gentleman  in 
regard  to  the  power  of  Congress  to  organize  a  Territorial  Gov- 
ernment." 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION.  255 

In  conclusion  the  General  said:  "I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
the  people  of  the  Territory,  according  to  the  Constitution,  have 
the  right  to  bear  arms;  that  the  Legislative  Assembly  had  the 
right  to  organize  the  militia;  that  Congress  had  the  right  to 
declare  that  the  general  officers  should  be  elected  by  the 
people,  in  such  manner  as  the  respective  legislatures  of  the 
States  and  Territories  may  provide  by  law;  that  the  Gover- 
nors of  the  States  and  Territories  are  the  commanders-in-chief 
of  the  militia,  the  same  as  the  President  of  the  United  States 
is  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies  and  navies  of  the  United 
States,  with  Generals  and  Admirals  under  him  commanding; 
that  the  military  organization  of  our  Territory  follows  that  of 
the  Federal  Government  more  closely,  perhaps,  than  that  of 
any  other  Territory  or  State  in  the  Union ;  and  that  Governors 
and  Commander-in-Chiefs  are  as  much  creatures  of  law  as  any 
other  officers,  and  while  they  exercise  a  higher  jurisdiction, 
they  are  as  amenable  to  law  as  the  humblest  officer  or  citi- 
zen." 

A  Military  Riot. — Governor  Shaffer  still  refusing  to  sus- 
pend the  operations  of  his  order,  General  Wells  directed  that 
the  military  musters  be  postponed.  Meantime  a  most  unpleas- 
ant incident  had  occurred,  for  which  some  of  the  newly  ar- 
rived Federal  troops  were  responsible.  Just  one  week  after 
the  issuance  of  the  proclamation  disarming  and  disbanding  the 
militia — for  that  was  the  ultimate  effect  of  the  Governor's  de- 
cree— a  party  of  drunken  soldiers,  forty  in  number,  raided  the 
town  of  Provo  by  night,  destroying  property,  breaking  into 
houses,  and  abusing  citizens.  The  rioters,  who  were  from  the 
neighboring  military  post,  had  needle  guns,  bayonets  and  re- 
volvers, and  did  not  hesitate  to  use  them.  The  marauding 
continued  until  a  body  of  citizens,  arming  themselves,  pursued 
the  peace  disturbers.  A  few  shots  were  fired,  and  the  riot  was 
quelled  without  bloodshed.  The  provocation  for  the  outbreak 
was  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  citizens  to  sell  liquor 
to  these  soldiers  or  rent  to  them  their  dancing  halls. 

Shaffer  and  De  Trobriand. — The  affair  at  Provo  was  much 
regretted  by  the  military  authorities,  particularly  by  Major 
Osborne,  the  officer  in  charge  at  Camp  Rawlins.  Governor 
Shaffer  likewise  deplored  it,  all  the  more  since  it  enabled  the 
citizens  to  complain  of  and  satirize  the  "moral  force"  which 
had  been  sent  to  assist  him  in  maintaining  law  and  order  in 
this  supposedly  turbulent  Territory.  The  Governor  endeav- 
ored to  place  responsibility  for  the  trouble  upon  General.  De 
Trobriand,  the  commander  at  Camp  Douglas,  who  was  in 
no  way  to  blame  for  what  had  happened ;  the  soldiers  at  Camp 
Rawlins  not  being  under  his  command.  It  was  suspected  that 
the  real  cause  of  the  Governor's  attitude  toward  De  Trobriand, 


256      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


was  the  latter's  friendly  social  affiliations  with  some  of  the 
prominent  "Mormons;"  conduct  quite  out  of  harmony  with 
the  exclusive  policy  of  the  Executive.  A  heated  corre- 
spondence between  Shaffer  and  De  Trobriand  found  its  way 
into  the  public  prints,  and  occasioned  much  comment  in  and 
out  of  Utah. 

The  Rioters  Court-Martialed. — The  Camp  Douglas  com- 
mander, acting  under  special  instructions  from  General  Augur 
at  Omaha,  investigated  the  Provo  riot,  meeting  for  that  pur- 
pose with  Major  Osborne  and  leading  citizens  of  that  town,  in 
the  latter  part  of  September.  Concurrently  with  a  civic  inves- 
tigation, a  court  martial  inquiry  was  held  at  Camp  Rawlins. 
Major  Osborne,  and  subsequently  General  De  Trobriand,  of- 
fered, to  turn  over  to  the  civil  authorities,  for  trial  and  pun- 
ishment, the  men  implicated  in 
the  disturbance.  But  the  City 
Marshal  declined  to  receive 
them,  giving  as  his  reason  that 
a  recent  ruling  by  one  of  the 
Federal  Judges  had  withdrawn 
criminal  cases  from  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Probate  Courts, 
and  it  was  therefore  likely  that 
if  he  (the  Marshal)  took  charge 
of  the  prisoners  they  would 
soon  be  released  on  a  writ  of 


habeas  corpus,  issued  from  the 
District  Court. 

Subsequently  there  was  an 
investigation  of  the  riot  at  the 
headquarters  of  the  Department 
of  the  Platte,  and  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  affair  was  placed 
upon  the  officers  and  soldiers 
of  those  companies  that  were 
present  for  duty  at  that  date. 
The  amount  of  damages  fixed 
upon  by  the  Mayor  of  Provo, 
was  ordered  to  be  paid  to  the 
injured  parties  without  delay;  and  this  was  done. 

General  Sherman's  Visit. — Early  in  October  Utah  was 
honored  with  a  visit  from  General  Sherman,  the  Chief  Com- 
mander of  the  United  States  Army.  The  eminent  soldier,  ac- 
companied by  his  daughter,  and  by  General  Schofield  and 
other  military  officers,  was  returning  from  a  tour  through  Cal- 
ifornia and  Oregon.  The  party  registered  at  the  Townsend 
House,  and  during  their  stay  had  a  very  sociable  interview 


GENERAL  SHERMAN. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION. 


257 


with  President  Young  and  other  Church  leaders,  at  the  Pres- 
ident's Office.  One  evening,  while  Sherman  was  still  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  he  was  serenaded  by  the  Parowan  Choir,  which  hap- 
pened to  be  in  town,  attending  the  Semi-Annual  Conference. 
The  war-worn  veteran  had  been  serenaded  the  same  evening 
by  the  Camp  Douglas  Band,  and  had  then  declined  to  address 
the  throng  that  gathered  in  front  of  the  hotel,  clamoring  for  a 
speech.  But  he  could  not  resist  the  sweet  singers  whose  music 
touched  his  heart,  especially  when  they  sang,  "Hard  Times, 
Come  Again  No  More."  In  a  feeling  response  the  General 
thanked  the  Choir  in  happy 
vein,  and  expressed  the  hope 
that  the  good  people  of  Utah 
might  long  enjoy  the  homes 
they  had  created  in  the  wilder- 
ness, and  that  for  them,  indeed, 
"hard  times"  might  "come 
again  no  more." 

Death  of  Governor  Shaf- 
fer.— Governor  Shaffer  died  on 
the  last  day  of  that  month.  His 
wife  had  recently  passed  away 
at  their  old  home  in  Illinois, 
and  this  grief  doubtless  has- 
tened his  end.  All  due  honor 
was  paid  to  the  deceased,  and 
to  the  authority  that  he  repre- 
sented. On  "Mormon"  and 
"Gentile"  buildings  alike,  flags 
were  hung  at  half  mast.  After 
the  funeral,  which  was  con- 
ducted by  Reverend  G.  M. 
Pierce,  at  the  Executive  resi- 
dence, the  remains  were  escorted  by  the  Masonic  Fraternity, 
by  Camp  Douglas  troops,  and  by  Federal,  Territorial  and  City 
officers,  to  the  Utah  Central  Railroad  station,  where  they  were 
consigned  to  Freeport,  Illinois,  for  interment. 

Governor  Vaughan. — The  same  afternoon  a  dispatch  from 
Washington  announced  the  appointment  of  Vernon  H. 
Vaughan  as  Governor  of  Utah,  with  George  A.  Black  as  Sec- 
retary of  the  Territory.  Mr.  Vaughan  had  held  the  latter  of- 
fice under  Governor  Shaffer,  and  Mr.  Black  had  been  the  Gov- 
ernor's private  secretary.  Both  were  young  men  of  lihiited 
experience. 

The  Wooden  Gun  Rebellion! — About  the  time  that  the 
military  musters  would  have  taken  place  had  they  not  been 
prohibited,  a  hundred  or  more  Salt  Lake  militiamen,  some  of 
them  carrying  wooden  guns,  held  a  drill  on  the  Twentieth 

16 


GOVERNOR  VAUGHAN. 


J5S      WlilTXKVS  roiVLAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Ward  Square,  near  the  site  of  the  present  Lowell  School.  Gov- 
ernor Vaughan  was  absent,  but  Secretary  Black,  acting  in  his 
stead,  had  eight  of  the  officers  arrested  and  taken  before  Asso- 
ciate Justice  Hawley,  who,  after  a  hearing,  bound  them  over 
to  await  the  action  of  the  Grand  Jury.  These  officers  were 
Andrew  Burt,  Charles  R.  Savage,  William  G.  Phillips,  James 
Fennamore,  Charles  Livingston,  George  M.  Ottinger,  Archi- 
bald Livingston,  and  John  C.  Graham.  Declining  to  give 
bonds,  they  were  placed  in  charge  of  the  military  authorities 
at  Camp  Douglas.  They  were  kindly  treated;  Colonel  Henry 
A.  Morrow,  in  temporary  charge  during  the  absence  of  General 
De  Trobriand,  allowing  them  the  freedom  of  the  Camp.  The 
failure  of  the  Grand  Jury  to  indict  them  ended  the  episode 
known  as  "The  Wooden  Gun  Rebellion." 

Governor  Woods. — Governor  Vaughan's  tenure  of  office 

was  very  brief,  extending  only 
from  October,  1870,  to  January, 
1871.  It  had  been  understood 
at  the  time  of  his  appointment 
that  it  was  only  to  fill  an  inter- 
regnum, while  President  Grant 
was  making  up  his  mind  upon 
a  more  suitable  person  for  the 
place.  Among  those  mentioned 
in  this  connection  were  Col- 
onel O.  J.  Hollister  and  General 
P.  E.  Connor;  but  neither  of 
them  was  chosen.  The  appoint- 
ment went  to  George  L. 
Woods,  a  Missourian  by  birth, 
who  had  just  completed  a  four 
years'  term  as  Governor  of  Or- 
egon. He  was  appointed  in 
January,  and  took  the  oath  of 
office  in  March. 

Council  and  Committee 
Disagree. — In  the  summer  of 
1871,  Salt  Lake  City  proposed 
to  celebrate,  with  more  than  usual  "pomp  and  circumstance," 
the  Nation's  birthday.  Accordingly  a  committee  representing 
all  classes  of  citizens  was  appointed  by  the  City  Council  for 
that  purpose.  Another  committee,  representing  the  "Gentiles" 
and  their  affiliations,  purposed  holding  a  separate  celebration. 
Efforts  were  put  forth  for  a  joint  observance,  as  in  past  years, 
but  not  until  both  committees  had  gone  to  work  with  a  will, 
and  preparations  were  in  a  forward  state.  The  "Gentiles"  were 
willing  to  coalesce  under  a  new  arrangement,  and  make  over- 


GOVERNOR  WOODS. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION.  259 

tures  to  that  end ;  but  the  City  Authorities  did  not  see  their 
way  clear  to  cancel  what  had  been  done,  and  deeming  their 
non-partisan  committee  amply  able  to  manage  the  affair  in 
the  interest  of  all  the  citizens,  they  declined  to  make  any 
change.  Whereat  there  was  hot  resentment  in  the  opposite 
camp.  The  "Mormon  City  Council"  was  charged  with  "acting 
upon  their  old  principle  of  participating  in  nothing  unless  they 
can  be  masters  and  dictators  of  the  whole  affair,"  and  an  ap- 
peal was  issued  to  the  miners  in  the  adjacent  camps  to  come 
in  and  help  along  the  "Gentile"  observance  of  Independence 
Day. 

Acting  Governor  Black's  Proclamation. — General  Daniel 
H.  Wells,  at  the  request  of  the  Municipal  Committee,  or- 
dered out  a  few  companies  of  militia  to  assist  in  the  cele- 
bration. Governor  Woods,  the  chairman  of  the  other  com- 
mittee, was  then  in  the  East,  and  Secretary  Black,  who  had 
been  re-appointed,  was  once  more  Acting  Governor.  He,  in 
pursuance  of  the  policy  inaugurated  by  Governor  Shaffer,  is- 
sued a  proclamation  on  the  last  day  of  June,  forbidding  all  per- 
sons in  Utah  to  take  part  in  any  military  drill,  muster,  or 
parade,  until  so  ordered  by  the  Governor.  Black  was  so  much 
in  earnest  that  he  called  upon  the  commander  at  Camp  Doug- 
las to  enforce  with  troops  his  decree  against  the  militia  com- 
panies that  were  preparing  to  parade  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 
De  Trobriand  informed  the  Acting  Governor  that  his  command 
would  be  in  readiness  up  to  the  point  of  presenting  arms,  but 
the  word  to  "fire"  he  would  not  give;  Black  must  do  that  him- 
self. The  matter  was  pressed  no  further.  The  companies 
called  out  by  General  Wells  marched  in  line,  but  were  not  un- 
der arms,  and  the  soldiers  who  came  down  from  the  post  were 
present  only  as  spectators.  There  was  no  collision  on  Inde- 
pendence Day. 

Two  Celebrations. — The  observance  of  the  national  holi- 
day was  carried  through  to  a  finish,  both  celebrations  being 
very  creditable.  The  one  managed  by  the  Municipal  Commit- 
tee was  much  the  larger,  and  consequently  more  imposing. 
After  the  procession,  exercises  were  held  in  the  Tabernacle, 
where  Chaplain  Orson  Pratt,  in  an  earnest  invocation,  be- 
sought the  Almighty  that  "the  whole  of  this  vast  continent, 
from  the  North  Pole  even  to  the  uttermost  extremity  of  South 
America,"  might  "come  under  the  dorm'nion  of  Freedom"  and 
"the  rule  of  this  great  Republic."  David  McKenzie  read  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  speeches  followed  from 
George  Q.  Cannon  and  John  T.  Caine  ("Mormons"),  and  from 
Alexander  Majors  and  Thomas  Fitch  ("Gentiles").  The  other 
celebration  presented  some  original  features,  mostly  due  to 
the  miners,  who  had  responded  enthusiastically  to  the  appeal 


260      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  the  "Gentile"  Committee.  In  the  pageant,  as  it  moved 
toward  the  Liberal  Institute,  wagons  with  displays  of  ore  and 
bullion  were  seen,  probably  for  the  first  time  in  Utah.  T.  A. 
Lyne,  the  veteran  actor,  read  the  immortal  Declaration,  and 
addresses  were  delivered  by  Amasa  M.  Lyman,  Colonel  Joce- 
lyn,  William  S.  Godbe,  Judge  Toohy,  E.  L.  T.  Harrison,  and 
Major  Hempstead — all  "Gentiles"  or  ex-"Mormons." 

The  Liberal  Coalition. — The  coalition  between  "Gentiles" 
and  "Godbeites"  had  as  its  avowed  object  a  reform  in  Utah 
politics.  The  Liberals,  or  a  considerable  element  among  them, 
hoped  by  conservative  and  careful  action  not  only  to  enlist  all 
citizens  outside  the  People's  Party  under  their  leadership,  but 
likewise  to  draw  largely  from  the  ranks  of  that  organization. 
In  August,  1871,  there  was  to  be  an  election  for  members  of 
the  Legislature,  and  while  there  was  no  likelihood  that 
the  coalition  would  win,  its  leaders  were  hopeful  of  polling  a 
vote  large  enough  to  surprise  their  opponents.  The  contest 
was  practically  limited  to  the  legislative  council  district  com- 
prising Salt  Lake,  Tooele,  and  Summit  counties.  On  the  Lib- 
eral ticket  were  J.  Robinson  Walker,  Samuel  Kahn,  Wells 
Spicer,  and  C.  C.  Beckwith.  The  People's  candidates  were  Wil- 
ford  Woodruff,  George  Q.  Cannon,  Joseph  A.  Young,  and  Wil- 
liam Jennings. 

Radicals  and  Conservatives.— A  ratification  meeting  was 
held  in  the  Liberal  Institute  on  the  22nd  of  July.  The  audi- 
ence included  representatives  of  all  classes;' it  having  been  in- 
timated that  "Anti-Mormonism"  would  be  barred  from  the  pro- 
ceedings. Governor  Woods  presided  and  made  a  preliminary 
address.  He  refrained  from  discussing  local  politics,  but  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  add  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Territory.  He 
then  introduced  General  Maxwell,  who  stirred  up  the  meeting 
with  a  violent  "Anti-Mormon"  harangue.  His  assertion  that 
the  Liberal  Party  had  brought  "supremacy  of  law  and  safety 
of  life  and  property,"  and  his  attack  upon  past  political  man- 
agement in  Utah,  were  loudly  cheered ;  but  when  he  denounced 
polygamy  and  all  who  practiced  it,  the  reception  given  to  his 
harsh  expressions  soon  made  him  aware  of  the  blunder  he  was 
committing  toward  some  of  his  own  partisans.  Endeavoring 
to  retrieve  his  error,  he  ruffled  still  further  the  feelings  of 
Godbe,  Kelsey,  and  other  leaders  of  the  coalition. 

After  Maxwell  closed,  there  were  loud  calls  for  "Toohy" 
—Judge  Dennis  J.  Toohy,  of  Corinne.  He,  failing  to  profit  by 
the  experience  of  the  former  speaker,  began  his  tirade  as  fol- 
lows :  "Here  in  Utah  sensuality  and  crime  have  found  a  con- 
genial home ;  here  immorality  has  been  lifted  up  where  virtue 
ought  to  reign."  In  the  midst  of  a  most  abusive  attack  upon 
the  "Mormon"  Church,  he  began  to  eulogize  the  Catholic 


ATTEMPTS  AT  RECONSTRUCTION.  261 

Church,  whereupon  he  was  called  to  order  by  Edward  W. 
Tullidge,  who  demanded  that  he  confine  himself  to  political 
issues,  and  not  obtrude  his  religious  views  upon  the  audience. 

Tullidge,  after  Toohy  had  taken  his  seat,  mounted  the 
rostrum  and  spoke  his  mind  still  further,  stating  that  he  was 
as  much  opposed  to  the  theocracy  of  Rome  as  to  that  of  Salt 
Lake,  and  between  the  Pope  and  Brigham  Young,  could  not 
see  "difference  enough  to  split,"  etc.  Cheers  and  hisses  fol- 
lowed this  remark,  and  Kelsey  then  took  the  platform.  He  con- 
sidered himself  insulted  by  the  speeches  of  Maxwell  and  Toohy 
and  defended  the  "Mormon"  people  against  the  assaults  made 
upon  them.  Avowing  himself  a  polygamist,  and  declaring  that 
he  would  sacrifice  his  life  rather  than  repudiate  his  wives  and 
children,  he  hurled  back  the  epithet  "hogs,"  which  Toohy  had 
applied  to  men  of  his  class.  The  meeting  was  now  in  an  up- 
roar, but  Governor  Woods,  with  a  few  timely  remarks,  suc- 
ceeded in  restoring  order,  and  paving  the  way  to  a  self-con- 
trolled if  not  peaceful  adjournment. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Tribune,  a  day  or  two  later,  Mr.  Kelsey 
thus  expressed  himself:  "The  small  but  active  element  that 
seeks  control  of  the  Liberal  Party  is  filled  with  bitterness,  and 
would  fain  inaugurate  a  social  and  religious  war  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  this  Territory.  *  *  *  No  party  which  harbors  d°- 
signs  against  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  people  of  Utah  shall 
ever  have  my  co-operation/' 

The  Tribune  as  Peacemaker. — The  Tribune  attempted 
to  oil  the  troubled  waters.  Said  that  paper  editorially :  "The 
Liberal  Party  of  Utah  has  a  noble  mission — one  worthy  of 
the  best  efforts  of  the  best  men  of  the  Territory.  *  *  *  * 
Narrowness,  uncharitableness,  bitterness,  and  prejudice  should 
be  banished  from  the  party  councils,  and  denied  a  hearing  in 
the  public  meetings.  *  *  *  We  can  oppose  the  union  of 
Church  and  State  without  stopping  to  quarrel  about  church 
doctrines.  Polygamy  is  a  social  if  not  a  religious  institution 
of  the  Territory,  and  it  is  established  in  such  a  manner  that 
it  cannot  be  suddenly  extirpated.  Neither  is  there  any  ne- 
cessity for  such  violent  measures.  It  is  an  institution  which, 
if  let  alone,  will  die  of  itself,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is 
not  in  harmony  with  its  present  surroundings.  It  needs  no  op- 
position. On  the  contrary,  persecution  will  but  serve  to  pro- 
long its  life.  Having  the  good  of  the  Liberal  Party  at  heart, 
and  ardently  desiring  its  success,  we  here  protest  against  the 
attempt  some  weak,  misguided  men  are  making  to  force  this 
political  organization  into  a  raid  on  the  domestic  institutions 
of  the  Territory,  an  object  entirely  foreign  to  its  original  de- 
sign and  the  present  desire  of  nine-tenths  of  those  who  or- 
ganized and  now  compose  the  Liberal  Party  of  Utah.  The 


262      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

party  has  legitimately  nothing  to  do  with  social  questions,  and 
with  religious  questions  nothing  further  than  to  oppose  the 
union  of  priestly  with  political  rule." 

End  of  the  Coalition. — All  to  no  purpose.  The  coalition 
was  at  an  end.  "An  utter  failure" — such  was  its  epitaph,  writ- 
ten by  one  of  its  own  supporters.  The  Salt  Lake  Herald  de- 
clared the  Liberal  Party  dead,  "disembowelled  by  its  own- 
hands."  This  conclusion,  however,  was  premature.  The  Lib- 
eral Party  continued  its  career,  but  the  "Godbeites"  had  little 
to  do  with  it  thenceforth  in  the  matter  of  shaping  its  destiny; 
their  moderate  policies  being  overwhelmed  by  the  pronounced 
"Anti-Mormon"  spirit  of  the  organization.  For  a  time  the. 
names  of  Godbe  and  Harrison  remained  at  the  head  of  the 
Tribune  columns,  and  Tullidge  continued  upon  the  paper  as 
an  editorial  writer.  But  its  managing  editor  was  Oscar  G. 
Sawyer,  who  had  previously  been  connected  with  the  New 
York  Herald  staff.  From  April  15,  1871,  when  the  Liberal 
organ  was  rechristened  "The  Salt  Lake  Tribune,"  it  was  issued 
as  a  daily  paper.  The  change  of  title  was  followed  by  a  change 
of  tone;  the  Tribune  abandoning  its  conservative  policy  and 
beginning  a  fierce  warfare  upon  the  "Mormon"  Church.* 

*Prior  to  his  connection  with  the  Tribune,  Mr.  Sawyer  had  suc- 
ceeded Colonel  Findley  Anderson  as  the  New  York  Herald's  special 
correspondent  in  Utah.  Colonel  Anderson  reported  the  Pratt-New- 
man  discussion  for  that  great  journal.  Another  special  correspondent 
in  the  Territory  about  that  time,  was  the  afterwards  famous  humorist, 
Bill  Nye. 


XXII. 
JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION." 

1870-1872. 

"Anti-Mormonism"  in  Power. — The  removal  from  office  of 
Chief  Justice  Wilson  and  Secretary  Mann  indicated  something 
of  the  policy  of  the  National  Administration  toward  Utah. 
Those  officials  were  displaced  for  their  conservatism  in  the 
face  of  radical  conditions  that  were  deemed  necessary  to  a 
proper  solution  of  "The  Mormon  Problem."  Their  independ- 
ent course  was  construed  as  semi-subserviency  to  the  power 
against  which  the  Federal  Government,  through  its  local  rep- 
resentatives, had  arrayed  itself.  They  were  denominated  "Jack 
Mormons" — an  epithet  borrowed  from  the  politics  of  Illinois, 
and  bestowed  upon  all  "Gentiles"  suspected  of  cherishing  any- 
thing in  the  nature  of  a  friendly  feeling  toward  the  followers 
of  Joseph  Smith. 

"The  Ring."— At  the  fore-front  of  the  "Anti-Mormon" 
party  stood  a  combination  known  as  "The  Ring,"  composed  of 
Federal  office-holders  and  others  equally  hostile  to  the  so- 
called  "Dominant  Church."  This  combination,  in  some  re- 
spects, was  all  powerful.  They  had  but  to  ask  and  they  re- 
ceived from  Washington  whatever  was  considered  essential 
to  their  success  as  "reconstructionists."  It  was  a  request  from 
them  that  caused  the  removal  of  the  conservative  Judge  and 
Secretary;  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  transfer  of  General 
De  Trobriand  from  Camp  Douglas  to  another  military  post,  a 
few  months  later,  resulted  from  like  influences  exerted  against 
him  at  the  seat  of  Government.  Circumstances  placed  at  the 
head  of  this  puissant  combination,  Judge  Wilson's  successor. 
Chief  Justice  James  B.  McKean. 

Chief  Justice  McKean. — Judge  McKean  received  his  ap- 
pointment to  the  Utah  Bench  in  July,  1870,  and  arrived  at  Salt 
Lake  City  on  the  last  day  of  August.  He  was  a  native  of  Ver- 
mont, had  been  a  colonel  of  volunteers  during  the  Civil  War, 
and  at  the  time  of  receiving  his  Western  appointment  was 
practicing  law  in  New  York  City.  A  scholarly  gentleman, 
though  not  a  great  jurist,  he  was  pure  and  exemplary  in  his 
private  life.  The  Associate  Justices,  Hawley  (already  men- 
tioned) and  Obed  F.  Strickland — the  former  from  Illinois,  the 
latter  from  Michigan — were  men  of  fewer  virtues,  though  one 
with  the  Chief  Justice  in  all  things  pertaining  to  the  "Anti- 


264      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Mormon"    movement    that    was    about    to    be    inaugurated. 
Strickland  had  succeeded  Drake,  resigned;  and  Hawley,  Enos 

D.  Hoge,  removed.  The  twain 
had  held  their  offices  since 
April,  1869.* 

McKean's  Attitude.— Chief 
Justice  McKean  endeavored  to 
accomplish  in  a  judicial  way 
what  Governor  Shaffer  had 
sought  to  achieve  by  executive 
methods.  Acting  upon  the  the- 
ory that  the  "Mormon"  Church 
was  disloyal,  and  its  leaders 
tyrannical  and  corrupt,  he  pro- 
posed to  put  an  end  to  such 
conditions  by  any  means  in  his 
power.  Judge  McKean  was 
not  only  a  moral  man ;  he  was 
religious — a  devout  member  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  owing 
his  appointment,  it  was  said,  to 
Dr.  John  P.  Newman,  who 
was  very  influential  with  Pres- 
ident Grant.  McKean  believed 
that  he  had  a  divinely  appoint- 
ed mission  in  Utah, .to  the  carrying  out  of  which  he  was  evi- 
dently prepared  to  subordinate  all  other  considerations.  "A 
sort  of  missionary  exercising  judicial  functions,"  "a  very  deter- 
mined man,"  "of  considerable  personal  courage,"  "but  not  fit 
to  be  a  judge."  Such  was  the  pen  portrait  drawn  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice McKean,  by  Ex-Congressman  Thomas  Fitch,  then  a  lead- 
ing lawyer  at  Salt  Lake  City.f 

*Judge  Hoge,  who  was  from  Illinois,  though  a  resident  of  Utah  at 
the  time  of  his  appointment  by  President  Johnson,  was  removed  at  the 
incoming  of  the  Grant  Administration.  He  continued  to  reside  here, 
and  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Utah  Bar.  His  removal  had  led  to 
an  interesting  contest,  which  was  not  determined  until  September  of 
that  year.  Judge  Hoge  maintained  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  had  no  power,  according  to  the  Organic  Act  of  Utah,  to  remove 
Territorial  Judges  except  for  malfeasance,  until  the  four  years'  term 
for  which  they  were  appointed  had  expired,  and  that  the  appointment 
of  Judge  Hawley  was  therefore  invalid,  and  gave  him  no  right  to  the 
place.  The  case  was  ably  argued  on  both  sides,  and  was  decided  in 
favor  of  the  new  appointee. 

t"In  January,  1872,  in  the  Ebbett  House  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
Judge  McKean  avowed  his  principles  to  Judge  Louis  Dent,  brother-in- 
law  of  the  President,  iti  these  precise  words:  'Judge  Dent,  the  mission 
which  God  has  called  upon  me  to  perform  in  Utah  is  as  much  above 
the  duties  of  other  courts  and  judges  as  the  heavens  are  above  the 


JUDGE    MCKEAN. 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."          265 

Judge  McKean's  attitude,  barring  the  element  of  religious 
zeal,  was  that  of  all  or  most  of  the  Federal  officers  who 
were  allowed  to  hold  positions  in  Utah  during  that  period. 
They  arrayed  themselves  as  a  unit  against  the  "Mormon" 
Church,  particularly  the  leaders  of  that  organization,  am1 
policy  they  set  out  to  execute  was  watched  approvingly,  if  not 
directed,  from  Washington.  Dr.  Newman,  smarting  under  his 
polemic  defeat  at  the  hands  of  a  "Mormon"  Apostle,  and  Vice 
President  Colfax,  equally  embittered  against  the  Church  Auth- 
orities, had  returned  from  the  West  firmly  resolved  to  use  their 
influence  with  President  Grant  toward  a  speedy  and  effectual 
settlement  of  the  Utah  question.*  So  successful  were  they 
and  others  like  them  in  engrafting  their  views  upon  the  mind 
of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  that  all  Government  representatives 
in  the  Territory  who  manifested  a  conservative  spirit,  were 
removed,  and  their  places  filled  with  men  who  could  be  relied 
upon  to  carry  out  the  stern  policy  of  the  Administration.  "Anti- 
Mormonism"  was  in  the  saddle,  backed  by  the  power  of  the 
Federal  Government,  and  it  was  freely  predicted  that  "the  Man 
who  had  conquered  the  South"  would  make  short  work  of  sub- 
duing "rebellious  Mormondom." 

Objects  in  View. — The  object  of  the  Powers  upon  the  Po- 
tomac was  to  assert  and  maintain  the  authority  of  the  Nation 
over  the  Territory,  which  authority  they  had  been  made  to  be- 
lieve was  not  recognized  by  the  majority  of  the  people  here. 
Incidentally  they  proposed  to  curtail  the  temporal  activities  of 
the  "Mormon"  Church,  and  prosecute  some  of  its  principal  men 
for  alleged  offenses  against  the  laws.  So  much  for  the  object 
of  the  Government.  The  purpose  of  "The  Ring"  was  to  get 
the  upper  hand,  and  govern  Utah  to  suit  themselves.  "Mor- 
mon" rule  was  hateful  to  them,  and  they  wanted  "Anti-Mor- 
mon" rule  substituted,  regardless  of  majorities  or  minorities. 
A  Legislative  Commission  was  their  pet  scheme,  often  advo- 
cated, but  never  realized.  What  this  would  have  meant  for  the 
founders  of  the  commonwealth,  the  people  of  the  North  were 
not  in  a  position  to  fully  realize ;  but  those  of  the  South — such 
of  them,  at  least,  as  were  under  the  heel  of  "carpet-bag"  dom- 
ination— could  sense  the  situation  to  the  uttermost.  And  it  was 


earth;  and  whenever  or  wherever  I  may  find  the  local  or  federal  laws 
obstructing  or  interfering:  therewith,  by  God's  blessing  I  shall  trample 
them  under  my  feet."  See  Tullidge's  "Life  of  Brigham  Young,"  pp. 
420-421.  Also  Roberts'  History  of  the  Mormon  Church,  "Americana" 
for  November,  1914,  p.  953,  including  footnotes;  also  p.  954. 

*The  New  York  Tribune,  commenting  upon  what  followed,  said: 
"The  prosecution  of  the  Mormons  was  known  to  be  a  distinctively 
Administrative  measure,  set  on  foot  by  the  advice  of  Reverend  J.  P. 
Newman,  after  his  return  from  Salt  Lake." 


266      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

this  consideration,  as  much  as  anything,  that  made  their  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress,  then  and  at  a  later  period,  loth  to 
strengthen  by  special  legislation  the  hands  of  plotters  toward 
similar  ends. 

Not  All  Alike. — This  is  not  intended  as  an  arraignment  of 
an  entire  class.  Not  all  the  "Ringites"  were  of  the  office-seek- 
ing element.  Some  of  them  were  men  of  splendid  qualities,  and 
of  patriotic  purpose.  Their  designs  were  not  predatory.  It 
was  the  zeal  of  the  reformer,  not  of  the  place-hunter,  that  fired 
their  souls.  They  hated  "Mormonism,"  or  what  they  supposed 
was  "Mormonism" — hated  it  sincerely,  intensely;  and  their 
hatred  warped  their  judgment  upon  everything  connected  with 
it.  To  them  it  was  "a  desperate  disease,"  requiring  "a  desper- 
ate remedy."  The  McKean  coterie  had  honest  aims.  Their 
chief  fault  lay  in  the  unfair  methods  by  which  they  sought  to 
encompass  those  aims. 

Local  Legislation  Set  Aside. — One  object  of  attack  at 
the  opening  of  the  campaign  against  "The  Mormon  Power," 
was  the  Utah  statute  creating  the  offices  of  Territorial  Mar- 
shal and  Territorial  Attorney-General ;  a  statute  dating  back 
to  the  year  1852.  By  that  law  the  Territorial  Attorney-General 
was  required  to  attend  to  all  legal  business  before  the  courts 
where  the  Territory  was  a  party,  and  to  prosecute  Indians  ac- 
cused of  crime  under  the  local  statutes ;  while  the  Territorial 
Marshal  was  to  execute  all  orders  and  processes  of  the  Su- 
preme and  District  Courts  in  cases  that  arose  under  the  laws 
of  Utah.  This  arrangement  left  to  the  United  States  District 
Attorney  and  United  States  Marshal  the  legal  business  arising 
under  the  Acts  of  Congress.  The  General  Government  de- 
frayed all  expenses  incident  to  the  settlement  of  United  States 
business  in  the  courts,  and  the  Territory  assumed  the  cost  of 
its  own.  This  law,  with  another,  giving  to  Probate  Courts  a 
general  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  had  been  in  operation, 
under  the  implied  sanction  of  Congress,  for- a  period  of  eighteen 
years. 

Orr  versus  McAllister. — Some  time  before  the  arrival  of 
Chief  Justice  McKean,  and  while  Judge  Wilson  was  still  upon 
the  Utah  Bench,  a  case  had  come  up  in  the  District  Court  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  involving  the  rival  claims  of  the  United  States 
Marshal,  J.  Milton  Orr,  and  the  Territorial  Marshal,  John  D. 
T.  McAllister.  The  proceedings  were  on  a  writ  of  quo  war- 
ranto,  defined  by  Blackstone  as  "a  writ  brought  before  a  proper 
tribunal  to  inquire  by  what  warrant  a  person  or  corporation  ex- 
ercises certain  powers."  Judge  Wilson  decided  that  Mr.  Orr 
was  the  proper  officer  to  perform  the  duties  of  Marshal  in  the 
District  Court.  Wilson's  intent  was  not  to  arbitrarily  set  aside 
the  law  vesting  that  right  in  the  Territorial  Marshal,  biit  to 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."          267 

have  the  much  mooted  question,  which  had  vexed  the  Utah 
courts  for  a  generation,  determined  by  competent  judicial  auth- 
ority. It  was  understood  between  Judge  Wilson  and  the  "Mor- 
mon" attorneys,  Snow  and  Stout,  that  an  appeal  would  be 
taken  for  that  purpose,  and  the  Judge  volunteered  all  the  infor- 
mation he  possessed  upon  the  subject.  Accordingly  the  case 
went  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Utah,  and  was  docketed  with 
one  similar,  the  parties  to  which  were  Charles  H.  Hempstead, 
United  States  District  Attorney,  and  Zerubbabel  Snow,  Attor- 
ney-General for  the  Territory.  This  case  had  also  been  ap- 
pealed from  the  Third  District  Court. 

Territorial  Officers  Ousted.— In  March,  1871,  the  Supreme 
Court,  then  consisting  of  Chief  Justice  McKean  and  Associate 
Justices  Hawley  and  Strickland,  affirmed  the  judgment  of  the 
District  Court,  and  ruled  out  the  Territorial  Marshal  and  At- 
torney General.  Those  magistrates  held  that  the  tribunals  over 
which  they  presided  were  United  States  Courts,  to  be  gov- 
erned only  by  the  Acts  of  Congress.  The  Utah  Legislature  had 
no  authority  to  prescribe  rules  for  their  guidance,  and  the  Ter- 
ritorial officers  could  not  legally  attend  to  any  of  the  business 
of  their  courts.  Such  was  the  substance  of  their  decree. 

Probate  Courts  Curtailed. — Prior  to  this  decision,  Judge 
Hawley,  at  Beaver,  in  the  Second  District,  had  ruled  against 
the  Probate  Courts,  holding  that  they  had  no  jurisdiction  in 
criminal  cases,  nor  in  any  save  those  pertaining  to  proof  of 
wills  and  administration  of  estates ;  an  attitude  in  which  he  was 
sustained  by  the  other  members  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The 
effect  of  this  ruling  was  to  discharge  from  custody  one  Morgan 
L.  Peden,  who  had  recently  been  convicted  of  assault  with  in- 
tent to  kill  Isaac  Riddle,  and  sentenced  for  two  years  and  six 
months'  imprisonment  in  the  Penitentiary.  Peden,  on  regain- 
ing his  liberty,  instituted  proceedings  in  the  District  Court 
against  Judge  Murdock,  Sheriff  Hunt,  and  Isaac  Riddle,  for 
damages  in  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars ;  the  basis  of  the 
action  being  his  trial  and  conviction  in  the  Iprobate  Court.  Pe- 
den's  release  vindicated  the  foresight  of  the  Provo  City  author- 
ities at  the  time  of  the  raid  by  soldiers  from  Camp  Rawlins. 
When  General  De  Trobriand  offered  to  surrender  the  men  im- 
plicated in  the  riot,  that  they  might  be  tried  and  punished  un- 
der the  civil  law,  the  City  Marshal,  it  will  be  remembered,  de- 
clined to  receive  them,  on  the  ground  that  "a  legal  decision 
of  recent  date'"  had  "withdrawn  criminal  cases  from  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Probate  Court,"  so  that  the  prisoners,  if  'taken 
into  custody  bv  him,  "would  soon  be  released  on  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  issued  from  the  District  Court." 

The  Englebrecht  Case.— Shortly  before  Judge  McKean's 
administration  began,  a  case  had  arisen  that  was  destined  to 


268      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


have  a  weighty  bearing  upon  his  fortunes.  This  case  had  its 
origin  while  Judge  Strickland  was  presiding  temporarily  in  the 
Third  District  Court.  A  liquor-dealing  firm,  of  which  Paul 
Englebrecht  was  the  senior  partner,  had  violated  the  ordin- 
ances of  Salt  Lake  City  by  selling  liquor  at  retail  under  a  li- 
cense permitting  them  to  sell  it  only  at  wholesale;  and  as  th~ 
result  of  their  continued  disobedience — for  they  had  been  fined 
repeatedly  for  such  infractions  of  the  law — their  establishment, 
on  August  27,  1870,  was  abated  by  the  police.  Barrels  and  kegs 
containing  whiskey,  brandy,  wine,  and  beer,  were  rolled  into 
the  street,  ends  knocked  in,  and  contents  poured  into  the  gut- 
ter. All  vessels  containing  liquor,  and  every  article  used  in  its 
sale,  were  destroyed,  but  the  officers  were  careful  not  to  injure 
any  other  property  found  upon  the  premises.  The  work  was 
done  as  quietly  as  possible,  and  was  witnessed  by  a  multitude 
of  people. 

City  Officers  Under  Arrest. — Upon  the  complaint  of  Mr. 
Englebrecht  and  his  business  associates,  Alderman  Jeter  Clin- 
ton, who  had  issued  the  war- 
rant of  abatement,  with  City 
Marshal  John  D.  T.  McAllister, 
Chief  of  Police  Andrew  Burt, 
and  other  officers  who  had 
helped  to  execute  the  legal 
process,  were  arrested  by  the 
United  States  Marshal,  and 
after  a  hearing  before  Judge 
Strickland,  were  placed  under 
bonds  to  await  the  action  of  the 
Grand  Jury.  A  criminal  charge 
was  the  basis  of  their  arrest, 
but  a  civil  suit  was  also  planted 
against  them.  Such  was  the 
situation  at  the  opening  of  the 
District  Court  in  September. 

An  Illegal  Grand  Jury. — 
The  grand  jurors  summoned 
for  that  term  of  court  had  been 
obtained  in  a  manner  not  sanc- 
tioned by  law.  The  iurv  law  of 
the  Territory  made  it  the  duty 

CHIEF  BURT.  of    the    County    Clerk,    in    the 

presence  of  the  Territorial  Mar- 
shal or  the  Sheriff,  to  draw  jurors  by  lot  from  the  names  of  tax- 
payers found  upon  the  county  assessment  rolls.  Refusing  to  be 
governed  by  this  statute.  Judge  Strickland  had  ordered  the  grand 
jurors  to  be  selected  by  the  United  States  Marshal,  upon  a  writ  of 


JUDGE  McKKAN  AND  JUS  "MISSION."          269 

open  venire.  Before  the  venire  was  returned,  Judge  McKean  was 
installed  in  the  Third  District,  and  Judge  Strickland  assigned 
to  the  First,  the  seat  of  which  was  at  Provo. 

While  the  Grand  Jury  was  being  empaneled,  the  attorneys 
for  the  city  officers  in  the  Englebrecht  case  challenged  the 
array,  and  filed  a  motion  to  set  it  aside.  Arguments  followed, 
and  the  Judge  then  rendered  his  decision,  the  substance  of 
which  was  that  the  Third  District  Court,  being  a  United  States 
Court,  was  governed  by  the  Acts  of  Congress,  and  not  by  the 
laws  of  the  Legislature.  This  being  the  case,  the  method  by 
which  these  jurors  had  been  obtained — a  method  prescribed  by 
Congress  for  circuit  and  district  courts  in  the  States  of  the 
Union — was  lawful  and  proper.  The  challenge  was  therefore 
overruled,  and  the  Grand  Jury  accepted  and  sworn. 

Indictment,  Conviction,  and  Appeal. — The  sequel  was  an 
indictment  against  Alderman  Clinton  and  the  officers  who  had 
abated  the  liquor  store.  Their  act  was  described  as  "a  wilful 
and  malicious  destruction  of  property."  For  such  an  offense 
the  laws  of  Utah  allowed  as  damages  three  times  the  value  of 
the  property  destroyed.  They  were  tried  in  the  District  Court, 
where  a  verdict  was  rendered  against  them,  sustaining  the 
claim  of  the  liquor  dealers  for  the  sum  of  $59,063.25,  or  three 
times  the  amount  of  the  damage  done.  The  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Territory  affirmed  this  decision,  and  the  case  was  then  car- 
ried on  appeal  to  the  Court  of  Last  Resort. 

A  Change  of  Prosecutors. — About  this  time  United  States 
Attorney  Hempstead  resigned  his  office,  unwilling,  it  was  said, 
to  be  a  party  to  the  radical  procedure  then  going  on  in  the 
Federal  Courts.  Pending  the  appointment  of  a  successor, 
Judge  McKean  placed  the  duties  of  public  prosecutor  upon 
Robert  N.  Baskin,  who  had  been  the  attorney  for  the  liquor 
dealers  in  the  Englebrecht  case.  Judge  Baskin  brought  to  the 
discharge  of  his  new  duties,  not  only  talent  and  experience,  but 
an  intense  hostility  to  the  "Mormon"  Church,  the  main  object 
of  attack  in  the  judicial  operations  that  were  now  beginning. 
The  assistant  to  the  Acting  U.  S.  Attorney  was  General  Max- 
well, Register  of  the  Land  Office,  who  is  said  to  have  volun- 
teered his  legal  services.  Forthwith  these  zealous  officials  pre- 
pared to  launch  a  series  of  criminal  prosecutions  against  men 
prominent  in  the  "Mormon"  community. 

Federal  Courts  Without  Funds. — At  this  juncture,  how- 
ever, a  temporary  set-back  was  experienced,  owing  to  a  lack 
of  funds  with  which  to  defray  the  expenses  of  these  and  other 
prosecutions.  The  Legislature  had  made  the  usual  appropria- 
tion for  the  Federal  Courts,  but  had  expressly  provided  that  the 
money  should  be  drawn  and  disbursed  by  the  Territorial  Mar- 
shal, which  office,  so  far  as  the  decision  of  those  courts  could 


270      WHITNEY'S  1'OPTLAU  HISTORY  OF  UTAH 

affect  it,  had  ceased  to  exist.  Consequently  there  was  now  no 
proper  person  to  draw  and  disburse  the  money.  The  Terri- 
torial Auditor,  William  Clayton,  to  whom  Marshal  Patrick  ap- 
plied for  warrants  upon  the  Territorial  Treasury,  refused  to 
sanction  the  payment  of  funds  to  any  person  not  authorized  by 
law  to  receive  them,  and  the  Comptroller  of  the  National  Treas- 
ury declined  to  audit  bills  for  the  expenses  of  the  District 
Courts,  except  those  incurred  in  the  settlement  of  United 
States  business.  This  caused  a  deadlock  in  the  Third  Judicial 
District. 

Judge  to  Jurors. — Judge  McKean,  summoning  the  grand 
and  petit  jurors  before  him,  read  an  address  to  them,  in  which 
he  contrasted  the  prompt  payment  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment, of  the  expenses  of  the  Utah  Legislature,  with  the 
refusal  by  that  body  to  permit  the  expenses  of  the  United 
Slates  Courts  to  be  paid.  He  virtually  placed  the  blame  upon 
the  "Mormon"  Priesthood,  and  inveighed  against  them  in  se- 
vere terms.  He  then  excused  the  jurors,  after  thanking  them 
for  their  attendance,  and  adjourned  his  court  sine  die. 

The  newspapers  now  took  up  the  theme,  and  from  the 
Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  Utah  affairs  were  freely  discussed.  One 
Western  paper — the  Carson  (Nevada)  Register — referring  to 
Chief  Justice  McKean  and  his  attitude  upon  the  Bench,  pun- 
gently  put  the  matter  thus:  "If  his  court  is  a  United  States 
Court,  of  course  the  United  States  is  bound  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses. *  *  *  Judge  McKean  was  simply  caught  in  one  of 
his  own  traps.  Like  every  man  who  deviates  from  trodden 
paths  of  precedent  and  law,  he  is  liable  to  get  scratched  with 
legal  briars,  and  break  his  neck  over  unknown  principles." 
Many  other  journals  expressed  similar  views. 

The  Deadlock  Continues. — The  deadlock  in  the  Third  Dis- 
trict Court  continued  for  several  months.  A  personal  visit  by 
Judge  Strickland  to  the  national  capital,  to  explain  matters  and 
procure  funds,  failed  of  its  object  so  far  as  finances  were  con- 
cerned. Until  Congress  or  the  Legislature  would  act,  no  pub- 
lic money  could  be  made  available.  Whatever  the  mood  of 
Congress,  the  Legislature,  whose  laws  had  been  set  aside  by 
Judge  McKean  and  his  associates,  did  not  feel  disposed  to  do 
anything  for  the  relief  of  the  situation. 

Transfer  of  the  Penitentiary. — In  the  summer  of  1871 
United  States  Marshal  Patrick  took  possession  of  the  Utah 
Penitentiary,  which  was  then  under  the  control  of  the  Terri- 
torial Warden,  Albert  P.  Rockwood.  The  transfer  was  under 
the  provisions  of  an  act  of  Congress  passed  in  January  of  that 
year,  giving  to  United  States  Marshals  in  the  Territories  auth- 
ority to  take  charge  of  penitentiaries  that  were  the  property  of 
the  Nation.  The  Utah  Penitentiary,  standing  upon  the  foothills 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."          271 

southeast  of  Salt  Lake  City,  had  been  jointly  erected  and  was 
held  to  be  jointly  owned  by  the  Nation  and  the  Territory.  War- 
den Rockwood  hesitated,  therefore,  to  surrender  it  upon  a  mere 
verbal  demand  from  Marshal  Patrick,  and  expressed  a  wish  to 
have  the  matter  adjudicated.  To  this  proposal  the  Marshal 
would  not  accede,  and  without  further  ado  seized  the  institu- 
tion over  the  Warden's  protest.* 

Federal  and  Territorial  Prisoners. — Marshal  Patrick  had 
likewise  been  empowered  to  take  charge  of  all  United  States 
prisoners  who  might  be  serving  sentence  in  the  Utah  Peniten- 
tiary, and  had  been  given  permission  to  contract  with  "the 
proper  authorities"  for  the  board  and  care  of  the  convicts  of 
the  Territory.  The  Marshal  demanded  the  surrender,  not  only 
of  United  States  prisoners,  but  of  Territorial  convicts  as  well. 
For  the  board  and  care  of  the  latter,  he  had  taken  a  contract 
from  Governor  Woods,  acting  for  and  in  behalf  of  the  Terri- 
tory. There  was  some  opposition  to  this  arrangement,  it  being 
contended  that  since  the  people  would  have  to  "pay  the  bill," 
the  Legislature,  and  not  the  Executive,  was  "the  proper  au- 
thority" in  the  premises.  To  the  peremptory  demand  for  the 
Territorial  prisoners,  the  Warden  demurred,  protesting  that  an 
order  should  first  be  issued  by  a  competent  court.  Patrick 
then  seized  all  the  prisoners  he  could  find,  and  conveyed  them 
to  the  Penitentiary. 

The  Case  of  Kilfoyle. — One  convict  was  missing,  a  man 
named  Kilfoyle,  who  had  been  sentenced  for  murder  to  a  long 
term  of  imprisonment.  Refusing  to  surrender  Kilfoyle  with- 
out an  order  of  court,  Warden  Rockwood  and  City  Marshal 
McAllister  were  arrested  for  resisting  the  United  States  Mar- 
shal in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  Judge  Hawley,  sitting  in 
chambers  of  the  Third  District  Court,  heard  the  case  early  in 
September.  Acting  U.  S.  Attorney  Baskin,  assisted  by  Judge 
Morgan,  prosecuted  the  charge,  and  Judge  Snow,  with  the  law 
firm  of  Fitch  and  Mann,  defended  Rockwood  and  McAllister. 

During  the  proceedings,  as  reported  in  the  local  press, 
there  was  a  hot  interchange  of  "compliments"  between  counsel 
and  other  persons  present.  Mr.  Fitch,  possessor  of  a  keen 
wit  and  a  ready  tongue,  contended  that  habeas  corpus  would 
have  been  a  better  way  to  test  the  question  as  to  who  was  the 
proper  custodian  of  Kilfoyle.  "However,"  he  added  ironically, 
addressing  the  Judge,  "we  have  perhaps  to  congratulate  our- 
selves that  the  services  of  your  Honor  have  been  invoked  at 
all ;  the  defendants  in  this  case  have  perhaps  reason  to  be 
thankful  that  force  and  violence  have  not  been  resorted  to'.  Per- 


*The  absolute  ownership,  by  the  Nation,  of  the  Territories  and 
their  belongings,  was  a  doctrine  stoutly  asserted,  and  as  stoutly  denied, 
in  those  days.  Marshal  Patrick  was  an  exponent  of  one  view,  and 
Warden  Rockwood  of  the  other. 


97? 


WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


haps  we  may  congratulate  ourselves  that  the  guns  of  the  Fort 
have  not  been  turned  on  the  City,  the  City  Hall  surrounded 
with  cavalry,  infantry  and  artillery,  and  the  Warden  compelled 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  to  surrender  his  prisoner." 

"That  would  have  been  my  way  to  do  it,"  retorted  Mr. 
Baskin. 

Mr.  Fitch — "I  presume  Mr.  Baskin  would  have  knocked 
the  City  Hall  and  City  Jail  down." 

Baskin — "I  would  that." 

Fitch — -"The  acting  law  officer  of  the  United  States  in- 
forms us  that  he  would  have  'let  loose  the  dogs  of  war/  had 
his  advice  been  followed  and  his  wishes  consulted.  And  why 
were  they  not?  Where  was  the  power  which,  with  all  the 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  war  once  interfered  to  prevent  by 
arms  a  peaceful  parade  of  American  citizens  on  the  Fourth  of 
July?  Was  it  asleep,  ashamed,  or  afraid?" 

Governor  Woods  (from  his  seat  on  the  right  hand  of  Judge 
Hawley)— "Neither,  my  lord." 

Mr.  Fitch — "I  am  assured  by  the  Executive  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Utah,  who  honors  us  with  his  audience,  and  encour- 
ages the  prosecution  with  approving  smiles,  that  my  surmises 
are  incorrect. .  The  Executive  of  the  Territory  perhaps  agrees 
with  the  opinion  once  expressed  by  the  present  President  of 
the  United  States,  that  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  are 
'members  of  the  Governor's  staff/  and  who  designs  possibly 
to  give  your  Honor,  as  his  staff  officer,  the  benefit  of  his  pro- 
tecting presence,  while  at  the  same  time  he  stands  ready  to 
answer  questions  of  defendant's  counsel,  whether  he  be  the 
party  interrogated  or  no — " 

The  Court — "This  discussion  is  becoming  exciting,  and  I 
shall  not  permit  further  remarks  outside  of  the  case." 

Mr.  Fitch — "I  beg  your  Honor's  pardon,  but  I  have  not 
traveled  out  of  the  proper  line  of  argument,  except  to  comment 
upon  interruptions  made  irregularly  by  Mr.  Baskin,  and  im- 
properly by  Governor  Woods.  Since,  then,  we  are  to  be  tried 
before  being  punished,  I  will  now  proceed  to  the  consideration 
of  the  important  questions  involved." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  hearing,  Judge  Hawley  decided 
that  Marshal  Patrick  had  ex  officio  right  to  the  custody  of  the 
prisoner,  and  that  Rockwood  and  McAllister  ought  not  to  have 
refused  to  surrender  him.  He  was  also  of  the  opinion  that  the 
Governor  could  make  a  contract  that  would  be  binding  upon 
the  people  of  the  Territory.  Each  of  the  defendants  was  held 
in  bonds  of  one  thousand  dollars,  to  answer  to  the  Grand  Jury. 

Judge  McKean  Reopens  Court. — Money  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  the  Third  District  Court  was  obtained  from  private 
sources;  one  of  the  contributors  to  the  fund,  which  was  de- 


JUDGK  McKliAN  AND  11  IS  "MISSION."          273 

signed  as  a  loan,  being  U.  S.  Marshal  Patrick,  who  was  a  well- 
to-do  property  owner  in  Omaha.  He  advanced  several  thou- 
sand dollars  to  the  cause.  The  deadlock  thus  being  broken,  op- 
erations were  resumed.  Judge  McKean  reopened  court  in 
Faust's  Hall,  September  18,  1871.  Just  before  the  Grand  Jury 
was  empaneled,  Judge  Hoge,  Mr.  Fitch,  Major  Hempstead,  Mr. 
Miner,  and  other  attorneys  challenged  the  array  of  jurors,  on 
the  ground  that  they  had  been  summoned  and  selected  by  open 
venire,  and  not  according  to  law.  The  attorneys  raised  the 
point  in  order  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  their  clients,  whose 
cases  would  come  before  the  court.  The  challenge  was  over- 
ruled, and  the  empaneling  of  the  Grand  Jury  proceeded. 

Examination  of  Grand  Jurors. — The  first  "Mormon"  grand 
juror  examined  was  George  Q.  Cannon,  editor  of  the  Deseret 
News.  In  answer  to  questions  put  to  him  by  the  prosecuting 
attorney,  Mr.  Cannon  affirmed  himself  a  Latter-day  Saint,  and 
a  believer  in  the  doctrine  of  plurality  of  wives.  He  did  not 
believe  that  a  man  committed  adultery  in  living  with  more  than 
one  wife,  married  to  him  according  to  divine  revelation.  Mr. 
Cannon  was  excused,  as  were  Hiram  B.  Clawson  and  James 
Townsend,  the  only  other  "Mormon"  jurors  present.  Judge 
McKean,  it  should  here  be  stated,  had  begun  to  deny  citizen- 
ship to  "Mormon"  aliens  on  similar  grounds. 

Proceedings  Against  Plural  Marriage. — It  was  now  evi- 
dent that  the  public  prosecutor  was  about  to  proceed  against 
the  practice  of  plural  marriage,  which  Congress,  in  1862,  had 
made  punishable  as  bigamy.  The  Anti-Bigamy  Law,  however, 
was  not  to  be  invoked  in  these  prosecutions,  but  a  Territorial 
statute,  enacted  ten  years  earlier,  against  adultery  and  other 
sexual  sins ;  a  statute  much  more  severe  than  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress passed  for  the  special  purpose  of  meeting  polygamous 
cases.  The  maximum  penalty  for  adultery  was  imprisonment 
for  twenty  years,  and  a  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars ;  while  the 
punishment  for  a  polygamous  marriage  was  five  years'  impris- 
onment and  a  fine  of  five  hundred  dollars.  Under  the  Terri- 
torial law  there  was  no  time  limit  for  such  prosecutions,  and 
no  appeal  could  be  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  Moreover  the  local  law  was  to  be  applied  to  polyga- 
mous cohabitation,  a  point  left  untouched  by  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress. 

The  Law's  Intent. — It  is  a  well  known  legal  maxim  that 
courts,  in  interpreting  laws,  must  be  governed  by  the  manifest 
intent  of  the  law  makers.  The  Utah  Legislature,  in  enacting 
a  law  against  adultery  and  lascivious  cohabitation,  had  not  in- 
tended to  strike  at  plural  marriage ;  all  or  most  of  the  mem- 
bers of  that  body  being  "Mormons,"  some  of  them  men  with 
plural  wives.  Governor  Young,  who  had  approved  the  meas- 

17 


274      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ure,  was  well  known  to  be  a  polygamist.  The  proposed  prose- 
cution of  men  of  his  class  under  the  Territorial  statute,  there- 
fore, was  looked  upon  as  a  wresting-  of  the  law  from  its  true 
purpose. 

Indictments  and  Arrests. — Early  in  October  a  warrant  of 
arrest  was  served  upon  President  Young,  who  had  been  in- 
dicted by  the  Grand  Jury  of  Judge  McKean's  court  for  lewd 
and  lascivious  cohabitation;  the  basis  of  the  indictment  being 
his  association  with  his  plural  wives.  Adultery  was  not  charged 
in  this  case,  doubtless  for  the  reason  that  none  of  the  defend- 
ant's wives  had  lodged  complaint  against  him;  and  without 
such  complaint  no  prosecution  for  this  crime  could  be  begun 
under  the  laws  of  Utah.  Having  been  ill  for  several  days, 
President  Young  was  permitted  by  Marshal  Patrick  to  remain 
in  his  own  home ;  a  deputy  marshal  being  left  upon  the  prem- 
ises. 

Next  morning  Mr.  Fitch,  of  counsel  for  the  defense,  made 
application  for  an  extension  of  time,  and  requested  that  Pres- 
ident Young  be  admitted  to  bail.  Assistant  Prosecutor  Max- 
well objected  to  bail  prior  to  the  defendant's  plea,  and  gruf- 
flv  demanded  that  Brigham  Young  come  into  court,  "the  same 
as  anybody  else."*  Judge  McKean  declined  to  admit  the  de- 
fendant to  bail,  but  granted  the  extension  of  time  asked  for  by 
his  attorney.  At  the  Judge's  suggestion,  also,  the  deputy 
on  guard  was  withdrawn;  President  Young  being  left  prac- 
tically upon  his  own  recognizances,  to  appear  in  court  and 
answer  to  the  indictment  as  soon  as  he  was  able.  Others  ar- 
rested on  the  same  charge,  were  Mayor  Wells,  George  Q. 
Cannon  and  Henry  W.  Lawrence.  The  indictment  of  the  last- 
named  gentleman,  who  was  connected  with  the  "Godbeite 
Movement,"  gave  a  show  of  impartiality  to  the  proceedings. 

"A  System  on  Trial."  The  pending  question  having  been 
argued,  President  Young  was  admitted  to  bail  in  the  sum  of 
five  thousand  dollars.  Arguments  upon  a  motion  to  quash  the 
indictment  consumed  several  days,  and  on  the  12th  of  October 
Judge  McKean  rendered  a  decision,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
said: 

"Let  the  counsel  on  both  sides,  and  the  court  also  keep  con- 
stantly in  mind  the  uncommon  character  of  this  case.  The  Supreme 
Court  of  California  has  well  said,  'Courts  are  bound  to  take  notice 
of  the  political  and  social  condition  of  the  country  they  judicially  rule.' 
It  is  therefore  proper  to  say,  that  while  the  case  at  bar  is  called  'The 
People  versus  Brigham  Young,'  its  other  and  real  title  is,  'Federal 
Authority  versus  Polygamic  Theocracy.'  The  Government  of  the 


*General  Maxwell's  physical  condition  was  said  to  be  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  ill  temper  that  he  often  displayed.  A  fearless 
fighter,  he  had  been  shot  almost  to  pieces  during  the  Civil  War,  and 
was  a  constant  sufferer  from  his  wounds. 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  ILLS  "MISSION."          275 

United  States,  founded  upon  a  written  Constitution,  finds  within  its 
jurisdiction  another  government  claiming  to  come  rrom  God— imper- 
ium  in  imperio — whose  policy  and  practices  are,  in  grave  particulars, 
at  variance  with  its  own.  The  one  Government  arrests  the  other,  in 
the  person  of  its  chief,  and  arraigns  it  at  this  bar.  A  system  is  on 
trial  in  the  person  of  Brigham  Young.  Let  all  concerned  keep  this 
fact  steadily  in  view;  and  let  that  government  rule  without  a  rival 
which  shall  prove  to  be  in  the  right." 

Judge  McKean  then  overruled  the  motion,  and  the  de- 
fendant pleaded  not  guilty.  Further  proceedings  were  post- 
poned, to  enable  both  sides  to  better  prepare  for  trial. 

Judge  McKean's  statement  that  the  real  title  of  the  case 
at  bar  was  "Federal  Authority  versus  Polygamic  Theocracy," 
and  that  a  system  was  on  trial  in  the  person  of  Brigham 
Young,  created  a  big  sensation.  It  was  equivalent  to  an  af- 
firmation that  the  United  States  Government  was  prosecuting 
a  Church  for  an  offense  committed  by  one  of  its  members,  and 
proposed  to  punish  an  individual  for  the  alleged  evils  of  a 
s}rstem.  All  over  the  country,  the  attitude  and  language  of 
the  Chief  Justice  were  commented  upon  and  criticised. 

Associated  Press  Tactics. — Efforts  were  made  by  those  in 
control  of  the  Associated  Press  to  mislead  the  public  mind 
relative  to  affairs  in  Utah.  Two  days  before  the  arrest  of 
President  Young,  and  before  it  was  publicly  known  that  an 
indictment  had  been  found  against  him,  the  New  York  Her- 
ald published  a  special  dispatch  from  Salt  Lake  City,  stating, 
under  flaring  headlines,  that  Brigham  Young  had  been  in- 
dicted ;  that  there  was  great  excitement  in  consequence ;  that 
the  Deseret  News  was  advocating  open  resistance  to  the  laws, 
endeavoring  in  every  way  to  incite  the  people  to  rebellion ;  that 
the  "Mormons"  were  arming  themselves,  and  that  a  disastrous 
collision  between  them  and  the  "Gentiles"  was  imminent. 

One  of  these  statements  was  true;  the  others  were  abso- 
lutely false.  Brigham  Young  had  been  indicted,  but  neither 
he  nor  his  friends  were  aware  of  it ;  and  the  fact  that  the  sender 
of  the  dispatch  was  informed  forty-eight  hours  in  advance, 
showed  that  someone  had  betrayed  the  secrets  of  the  Grand 
Jury  room.  The  author  of  the  dispatch,  according  to  Mr. 
Tullidge,  was  Oscar  G.  Sawyer,  managing  editor  of  the  Trib- 
une, for  which  journal,  the  same  historian  declares,  Judge 
McKean  was  permitted  to  write  editorial  articles,  sustaining 
his  own  court  decisions.  Mr.  Tullidge  was  then  one  of  the 
Tribune  directors.  He,  with  others,  denounced  Sawyer  for 
the  manner  in  which  he  was  conducting  the  paper,  and  finally 
compelled  his  resignation.* 

Senator   Morton  and   Party. — Early   in   October,   United 

*Tu11idge's  History  of  Salt  Lake  City,  pp.  588,  590. 


276      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

States  Senator  Oliver  P.  Morton  passed  through  Utah,  on  his 
way  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  With  him  came  a  small  party  in- 
cluding his  wife  and  child,  also  Mrs.  Lippincott,  better  known 
by  her  literary  name  of  "Grace  Greenwood/'  and  Mr.  W.  P. 
Fishback,  editor  of  the  Indianapolis  Journal.  They  arrived 
at  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  second  day  of  the  preliminary  hearing 
in  the  case  of,  the  People  versus  Brigham  Young.  The  In- 
diana statesman  was  a  spectator,  one  afternoon,  in  Judge 
McKean's  court.  Senator  Morton  was  then  a  cripple,  but  he 
requested  to  be  carried  to  the  court  room,  so  strong  was  his 
desire  to  be  present  at  these  extraordinary  proceedings. 

What  he  thought  of  them,  Mr.  Fishback  afterwards  ex- 
pressed in  correspondence  to  his  paper.  It  was  understood  that 
his  views  and  those  of  the  Senator  were  identical  upon  the 
subject.  "By  no  recognized  rule  of  interpretation,"  said  the 
distinguished  journalist,  "can  polygamy  be  punished  under 
this  law.  *  *  *  It  was  clearly  intended  by  its  framers  to 
punish  prostitution  and  fornication  in  cases  where  there  was 
no  claim  or  pretense  of  marriage.  However  illegal,  the  Mor- 
mon marriages  are  de  facto  marriages,  and  were  not  contracted 
in  violation  of  this  statute.  That  they  are  contrary  to  the 
Act  of  Congress  is  clear,  and  they  should  be  attacked,  if  at 
all,  by  the  United  States  authority  under  that  law.  To  use  the 
Federal  tribunals  for  the  punishment  of  polygamists  under  the 
Territorial  Act,  is  a  manifest  perversion  of  the  law."  He  de- 
nounced the  "trickery"  and  "pettifogging  style"  of  "the  prose- 
cution in  Judge  McKean's  court,"  and  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  Government  was  being  forced  into  "a  false  and  unten- 
able position." 

The  Chicago  Fire — Utah's  Relief  Offering. — Just  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Morton  Party,  tidings  of  the  Chicago  Fire 
had  been  flashed  to  every  corner  of  the  Nation,  touching  the 
hearts  of  millions,  and  kindling  instant  sympathy  for  the  tens 
of  thousands  of  unfortunates  who  were  rendered  homeless  by 
the  holocaust.  Calls  for  help  came  simultaneously,  and  the 
response  from  Utah  was  generous  and  immediate.  At  an  after- 
noon mass  meeting,  called  by  Mayor  Wells,  and  held  in  the 
Old  Tabernacle,  speeches  in  behalf  of  the  Chicago  sufferers 
were  made  by  Captain  Hooper,  Thomas  Fitch,  Mrs.  Lippin- 
cott, Major  Hempstead,  Alexander  Majors  and  Judge  Snow. 
Subscriptions  for  over  six  thousand  dollars  were  secured  on 
that  occasion.  At  night  the  meeting  reconvened  in  front  of 
the  Salt  Lake  House,  where  speeches  were  delivered  and  ad- 
ditional subscriptions  obtained.  A  benefit  performance  at  the 
Theatre,  and  a  lecture  by  Mrs.  Lippincott  at  the  same  place, 
with  other  contributions,  swelled  the  relief  fund  from  Utah  to 
nearly  twenty  thousand  dollars. 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  1 1  IS  "MISSION." 

"Grace  Greenwood"  and  Brigham  Young. — Mrs.  Lippin- 
cott,  in  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Herald,  describing  the  Tab- 
ernacle mass  meeting  (October  llth),  said:  "Here  we  saw 
Brigham  Young,  and  I  must  confess  to  a  great  surprise.  I 
had  heard  many  descriptions  of  his  personal  appearance,  but 
I  could  not  recognize  the  picture  so  often  and  elaborately 
painted.  I  did  not  see  a  common,  gross-looking  person,  with 
rude  manners,  and  a  sinister,  sensual  countenance;  but  a  well 
dressed,  dignified  old  gentleman,  with  a  pale,  mild  face,  a 
clear  gray  eye,  a  pleasant  smile,  a  courteous  address,  and 
withal  a  patriarchal,  paternal  air,  which  of  course  he  comes 
rightly  by.  In  short  I  could  see  in  his  face  or  manner  none  of 
the  profligate  propensities  and  the  dark  crimes  charged  against 
this  mysterious,  masterly,  many-sided  and  many-wived  man. 
The  majority  of  the  citizens  of  Salt  Lake  present  on  this  oc- 
casion were  Mormons,  some  of  them  the  very  polygamists  ar- 
raigned for  trial,  and  it  was  a  strange  thing  to  see  these 
men  standing  at  bay,  with  'The  people  of  the  United  States' 
against  them,  giving  generously  to  their  enemies.  *  * 
There  is  to  me,  I  must  acknowledge,  in  this  prompt  and  lib- 
eral action  of  the  Mormon  people,  something  strange  and 
touching.  It  is  Hagar  ministering  to  Sarah  ;  it  is  Ishmael  giv- 
ing a  brotherly  lift  to  Isaac."* 

The  Hawkins  Case. — The  case  against  President  Young 
never  came  to  trial ;  but  another,  almost  as  widely  known, 
passed  through  the  courts.  Thomas  Hawkins,  a  tinsmith,  had 
been  accused  by  his  wife,  Harriet  Hawkins,  of  "numerous 
adulteries,"  and  upon  her  statement,  made  first  to  the  Acting 
U.  S.  Attorney,  and  afterwards  to  the  Grand  Jury,  the  defend- 
ant was  indicted  and  brought  to  trial.  Hawkins  had  three 
wives,  and  the  alleged  adulteries  proved  to  be  his  associations 
with  one  or  both  of  the  women  whom  he  had  wedded  after  his 
marriage  with  the  complainant.  Having  been  convicted  in  the 
District  Court,  he  was  sentenced  by  Judge  McKean  to  pay  a 
fine  of  five  hundred  dollars  and  to  be  imprisoned  at  hard  labor 
for  three  years.  Commenting  upon  this  result,  the  Omaha 
Herald  said :  "A  greater  outrage  was  never  perpetrated  in  the 
name  of  law."  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory  affirmed 
the  decision,  and  meanwhile  the  defendant  was  released  on  bail. 

Devious  Methods. — The  Fitch  Review. — The  methods  by 

*About  that  tiine  the  Deseret  Telegraph  Line  was  completed  to 
Pioche.  Nevada;  a  great  boon  to  that  prosperous  mining  town.  Viewed 
from  Utah,  it  was  Sarah — Salt  Lake — ministering  to  Hagar — Pioche — 
in  the  wilderness.  Tt  was  Isaac  "giving1  a  brotherly  lift"  to  Tshmael: 
and  thus  Tshmael  responded:  "President  Brigham  Young:  We  thank 
you  for  your  enterprise  in  placing  us  in  telegraphic  communication 
\\ith  the  outer  world."  P.  Edward  Connor  and  others  were  the 
signers  of  this  dispatch. 


278      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

which  Hawkins  was  convicted,  were  afterwards  set  forth  by 
one  of  the  Court's  attorneys,  Mr.  Fitch,  in  a  review  of  which 
the  following  is  an  excerpt: 

"The  Act  of  Congress  governing  the  mode  of  procedure  in  crim- 
inal cases  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  gives  to  the  accused  ten 
peremptory  challenges  to  the  jury,  against  two  accorded  to  the 
prosecution;  while  the  Territorial  law  governing  the  mode  of  pro- 
cedure in  criminal  cases  in  the  Territorial  courts,  gives  the  prosecu- 
tion and  the  accused  six  challenges  each.  The  Act  of  Congress  re- 
ferred to  bars  all  prosecutions  for  non-capital  felonies  (except  forg- 
ery) not  instituted  within  two  years  from  the  date  of  the  offense, 
while  the  Territorial  laws  contain  no  statute  of  limitations.  The 
Territorial  laws  provide  that  in  non-capital  cases  the  jury  which  finds 
the  man  guilty  may  prescribe  the  punishment.  The  Act  of  Congress 
is  silent  upon  this  subject,  and  of  course  leaves  the  power  of  sentence 
where,  in  the  absence  of  statutory  regulation,  it  would  belong,  with 
the  Judge. 

"As  Judge  McKean  had  ruled  that  his  was  a  United  States 
Court,  the  counsel  for  Hawkins  asked  the  Court  to  give  their  client 
the  benefit  of  the  ten  challenges  allowed  by  Act  of  Congress.  Judge 
McKean  refused,  and  allowed  only  the  six  permitted  under  the  laws 
of  Utah.  The  defendant's  counsel  requested  as  an  instruction  to  the 
jury  that  the  law  of  Congress  protected  the  defendant  for  acts  com- 
mitted two  years  before  the  finding  of  the  indictment.  Judge  McKean 
refused,  because  the  Territorial  laws  prescribed  no  limit  for  prosecu- 
tions. The  counsel  asked  the  Judge  to  allow  the  jury  to  fix  the  pun- 
ishment as  prescribed  by  the  Territorial  laws.  He  refused  that  also. 
He  pursued  the  practice  of  a  United  States  Court  when  the  jury  was 
being  selected:  of  a  Territorial  Court  when  the  jury  were  being 
peremptorily  challenged.  He  pursued  the  practice  of  a  Territorial 
Court  when  the  Act  of  Congress  would  have  limited  the  prosecution; 
of  a  United  States  Court  when  the  jury  might,  under  Territorial  law, 
have  been  more  lenient  in  prescribing  punishment  than  the  exigencies 
or  a  great,  burning  'mission'  would  warrant. 

"What  authorities  were  cited?  What  precedents  invoked?  What 
chain  of  reasoning  offered  to  sustain  these  judicial  usurpations? — • 
None." 

Mr.  Fitch  further  showed  "that  the  four  important  pro- 
visions of  the  discarded  Cullom  Bill" — whose  author  had  be- 
come the  public  prosecutor — were  "all  in  successful  operation," 
having  been  "decreed  and  established  bv  James  B.  McKean." 
Those  provisions,  the  reviewer  summarized  as  follows:  "No 
choice  of  jurors  except  by  a  United  States  Marshal,  no  Mor- 
mon to  serve  on  juries,  the  abrogation  of  the  common  law  rule 
that  a  wife  cannot  testify  for  or  against  her  husband,  and  the 
new  doctrine  that  marriage  in  criminal  cases  can  be  proven  by 
admissions  of  the  defendant."* 

*The  author  of  the  Cullom  Bill,  in  a  quasi-defense  of  that  meas- 
ure published  in  recent  years,  says:  "All  of  the  provisions  of  the  Cul- 
lom Bill,  except  a  few  minor  ones,  were  afterwards  enacted  by  Con- 
gress and  enforced  in  Utah."  Nobody  will  dispute  this  statement; 
brt  the  stubborn  fact  remains  that  those  provisions  were  not  so 
"enacted"  when  Judge  McKean  permitted  them  to  be  "enforced  in 
Utah."  Consequently  they  were  unlawful. 

Other  apologists  for  extreme  procedure    in  the  Federal  Courts  of 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."          279 

More    Sensational    Prosecutions. — The    Hickman-Beadle 

Story. — The  crowning  sensation  of  the  year  was  the  arrest  of 
a  number  of  prominent  citizens — all  members  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church — charged  with  the  crime  of  murder.  Their  ac- 
cuser was  William  A.  Hickman,  a  self-confessed  slayer  of  men, 
who,  having  been  excommunicated  from  the  Church,  retaliated 
upon  its  leaders  and  some  of  his  former  associates,  by  assert- 
ing that  he  committed  his  misdeeds  under  their  direction.  The 
Acting  U.  S.  Attorney,  to  whom  Hickman  told  his  story,  in- 
duced the  so-called  "Danite"  to  go  before  the  Grand  Jury  of 
the  Third  District  Court  and  repeat  the  gruesome  tale.  The 
result  was  the  indictment  of  Daniel  H.  Wells  and  Hosea  Stout, 
charged  with  being  accessory  to  the  killing  of  one  Yates,  rep- 
resented to  have  been  a  trader  on  Green  River  at  the  time  of 
the  Echo  Canyon  War;  also  the  indictment  of  Brigham  Young 
and  William  H.  Kimball,  accused  of  complicity  in  a  similar 
affair,  the  alleged  "putting  out  of  the  way"  of  a  man  named 
Buck,  near  the  Warm  Springs,  during  the  same  period.  Both 
men  were  reputed  to  be  spies.  An  account  of  these  alleged 
killings  was  put  into  a  book  entitled  "The  Confession  of  Bill 
Hickman,"  written  by  himself,  but  edited  before  publication 
by  J.  H.  Beadle,  of  dime  novel  notoriety.  Hickman's  narrative 
was  written  at  Camp  Douglas,  where  he  was  kept  before  and 
after  his  interview  with  the  Grand  Jury. 

The  first  of  the  four  accused  persons  to  be  arrested  was 
Daniel  H.  Wells,  Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City.  He  was  taken  into 
custody  on  the  28th  of  October.  The  arrest  of  Judge  Stout 
and  General  Kimball  followed.  President  Young  was  away, 
having  started,  a  few  days  before,  for  Southern  Utah,  where 
he  usually  spent  the  winter.  The  persons  in  custody  were 
conveyed  to  Camp  Douglas,  and  there  received  kind  and 
courteous  treatment.  Their  "prison"  was  in  the  Officers' 
Quarters,  and  they  were  given  the  parole  of  the  camp.  Gen- 
eral Morrow,  who  had  succeeded  General  De  Trobriand  as 
post  commander,  had  them  sit  down  to  dinner  with  him  on 
the  Sabbath,  at  his  own  family  board,  where  he  invited  the 
venerable  Mayor  to  invoke  the  divine  blessing  on  the  food. 

Discredited  Testimony. — East  and  West,  the  newspapers 
teemed  with  comments  upon  these  sensational  proceedings. 


Utah,  seem  to  think  that  every  objection  thereto  is  fairly  met  and 
fully  answered  by  the  cynical  inquiry,  "Was  any  innocent  person 
convicted?"  As  if  any  kind  of  treatment  might  be  meted  out.  to  a 
guilty  person  with  the  utmost  propriety.  The  contention  in  this' class 
ot'  cases  is  not  that  the  accused  parties  were  always  innocent  of 
the  acts  charged  against  them,  but  that  whether  innocent  or  guilty, 
they  were  entitled  to  a  fair  trial,  and,  if  convicted,  to  a  legal  convic- 


280      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  Chicago  Post,  a  paper  not  friendly  to  the  "Mormon"  lead- 
ers, expressed  the  hope  that  they  were  "about  to  receive  their 
just  deserts,"  but  added :  "It  would  be  a  little  too  farcical  to 
convict  and  punish  them  on  such  testimony.  *  *  *  To 
take  the  evidence  of  the  principal  against  an  accessory,  is 
something  never  heard  of  in  any  respectable  court."  The  sit- 
uation was  a  reminder  to  President  Young's  friends  of  a  dis- 
course delivered  by  him  in  December,  1866,  wherein  this  sen- 
tence occurs:  "Infernal  thieves  will  come  into  my  public 
office  and  sit  ten  minutes,  and  then  go  out  and  lead  thought- 
less persons  into  the  practice  of  thieving,  saying,  'It  is  all 
right;  I  have  been  up  to  see  the  President.'  Such  men  will 
be  damned."  It  was  in  the  same  discourse  that  President 
Young  uttered  the  emphatic  disclaimer:  "If  any  man,  woman 
or  child,  that  ever  lived,  has  said  that  Brigham  Young  ever 
counseled  them  to  commit  crime  of  any  description,  they  are 
liars  in  the  face  of  heaven." 

Mayor  Wells  Admitted  to  Bail. — A  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
procured  the  early  release  of  Mayor  Wells  on  bail;  an  un- 
Icoked  for  event  in  view  of  the  capital  offense  with  which  he 
was  charged.  Judge  McKean  overruled  the  angry  objections 
of  the  prosecuting  officers,  giving  as  his  reason  that  the  de- 
fendant was  the  Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  if  kept  at  Camp 
Douglas  would  not  be  able  to  attend  to  the  duties  of  his  of- 
fice, and  could  not  therefore  be  held  responsible  for  the  peace 
and  order  of  the  town.  The  Mayor  was  required  to  furnish 
two  sureties  in  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  this  being 
done,  he  was  set  at  liberty. 

President  Young's  Case.— President  Young  was  still 
absent.  With  the  understanding  that  his  case — the  one  re- 
named by  Judge  McKean  "Federal  Authority  versus  Polyga- 
mic  Theocracy" — would  not  be  called  until  the  spring  term  of 
court,  he  had  taken,  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  a  trip  to  St. 
George,  there  to  pass  the  winter.  His  leading  attorney, 
Thomas  Fitch,  supposing  the  case  to  have  been  postponed  for 
the  term,  had  left  Utah  and  was  in  the  East.  To  the  surprise, 
therefore,  of  Major  Hempstead  and  the  other  lawyers  for  the 
defense,  the  case  was  called  on  the  20th  of  November;  the 
prosecuting  attorney  announcing  his  readiness  to  proceed  with 
the  trial. 

Major  Hempstead  requested  a  postponement  until  March  ; 
but  Mr.  Baskin  demanded  the  immediate  forfeiture  of  the  de- 
fendant's bonds.  Tudge  McKean,  after  having  the  matter 
under  advisement,  fixed  December  4th  as  the  time  for  the  trial 
to  begin.  It  was  now  published  throughout  the  land  that 
Brijrham  Young  had  forfeited  his  bonds  and  fled  from  justice. 
The  most  extravagant  tales  were  told  concerning  his  conduct 


JUDGE  McKKAN  AND   HIS  "MISSION."  281 

and  whereabouts.  All  the  while  he  was  sojourning  at  his 
winter  residence  in  "Dixie." 

Bates  Supersedes  Baskin.— About  this  time  President 
Grant  appointed  a  new  District  Attorney  for  Utah,  in  the 
person  of  George  C.  Bates,  of  Chicago.  This  gentleman  ar- 
rived at  Salt  Lake  City  late  in  November,  and  was  installed 
in  office  on  the  very  day  set  for  the  trial  of  the  "Mormon" 
leader.  Mr.  Bates  asked  that  the  case  of  the  People  versus 
Brigham  Young  be  called,  in  order  that  the  defendant,  if 
present,  might  be  heard,  or  if  absent,  that  his  bond  might  be 
forfeited.  Major  Hempstead  protested  against  the  proposed 
forfeiture,  stating  that  his  client  would  be  forthcoming  to 
answer  any  charge  within  a  reasonable  time.  This  statement 
seemed  to  satisfy  the  District  Attorney,  who  had  been  under 
the  impression  that  the  defendant  was  purposely  keeping  out 
of  the  way.  After  a  brief  discussion  between  counsel  and 
court,  the  case  was  set  for  trial  on  the  9th  of  January. 

Judge  Baskin,  because  he  had  prepared  the  case,  was  re- 
tained as  an  assistant  to  Mr.  Bates;  but  United  States  Attorney 
General  Akerman  denied  the  latter's  request  for  the  employ- 
ment of  additional  counsel.  "The  Government  ought  not  to 
show  any  unseemly  zeal  to  convict  Brigham  Young,"  remarked 
the  Attorney  General,  in  an  official  letter  to  Bates. 

Robinson  Murder  Redivivus. — Pending  further  proceed- 
ings against  the  head  of  the  "Mormon"  Church,  several  other 
members  of  that  body,  all  or  most  of  them  connected  with  the 
Salt  Lake  City  Police  force,  were  arrested  on  a  murder  charge 
—the  killing  of  Dr.  J.  King  Robinson  in  the  autumn  of  1866. 
An  investigation,  conducted  by  District  Attorney  Bates,  as- 
sisted by  General  Maxwell,  was  held  before  Chief  Justice  Mc- 
Kean,  beginning  on  the  14th  of  December.  Hempstead  and 
Fitch  appeared  for  the  defense.  General  Maxwell,  with  his 
usual  extravagance,  averred  that  "the  entire  police  force  of 
Salt  Lake  City"  was  "on  trial ;"  a  remark  reminiscent  of  Judge 
McKean's  declaration:  "A  system  is  on  trial  in  the  person  of 
Brigham  Young." 

The  Baker  Perjury. — The  main  witness  against  the  men  in 
custody  was  one  Charles  W.  Baker,  a  transient,  who  claimed 
to  have  been  in  Salt  Lake  City  at  the  time  Dr.  Robinson  was 
murdered.  That  very  night — October  22nd — he  with  another 
man  had  attended  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre  and  witnessed  a  play 
in  which  Julia  Dean  Hayne  took  part.  After  the  performance 
they  walked  down  State  Street  to  Third  South,  and  thence  to 
Main,  where  they  heard  a  shot  and  a  scream,  and  saw  m^n 
running  in  different  directions.  Two  of  these  men  Baker  took 
to  be  John  L.  Blythe,  a  grocer,  and  James  Toms,  a  gunsmith, 
with  whom  he  had  had  dealings.  He  left  Utah  before  the 


282      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

inquest  began,  and  had  since  traveled  in  Nevada,  California 
and  Oregon.  Such  was  the  substance  of  his  testimony. 

In  rebuttal  of  this  man's  statement,  the  defense  proved  by 
Thomas  Williams,  treasurer,  John  T.  Caine,  stage  manager, 
and  John  C.  Graham,  actor,  all  three  connected  with  the  Salt 
Lake  Theatre  in  1866,  that  no  performance  was  given  at  that 
house  on  October  22nd  of  the  year  mentioned.  A  bound  vol- 
ume of  the  Theatre  programs  was  introduced  in  evidence  of  the 
fact.  Moreover,  it  was  shown  that  Julia  Dean  Hayne  was  not 
in  Utah  at  that  time,  having  gone  to  Idaho  and  Montana,  after 
closing  her  engagement  on  the  30th  of  June  preceding.  Other 
flaws  in  the  testimony  of  this  witness  were  made  apparent  dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  investigation. 

Baker  afterwards  admitted,  and  made  affidavit  to  the 
effect,  that  he  had  committed  perjury  in  giving  that  testimony. 
He  stated  that  he  had  been  hired  to  give  it  by  certain  persons 
[one  of  them  a  U.  S.  Deputy  Marshal]  who  had  paid  his  board 
at  the  Revere  House  during  his  detainment  for  that  purpose ; 
and  that  he  had  been  furnished  with  a  plat  of  the  grounds  and 
street  near  the  place  of  the  tragedy,  that  he  might  carefully 
study  the  same  before  he  gave  his  evidence.  Since  then  he  had 
reflected  upon  the  enormity  of  the  crime  he  had  committed  in 
thus  falsely  swearing,  and  concluded  to  make  amends  so  far  as 
lay  in  his  power.  Hence  the  affidavit,  duly  signed,  sworn  to, 
and  attested.  Another  witness,  John  Kramer,  alias  "Dutch 
John,"  testified  that  Baker  admitted  to  him  that  he  had  "done 
some  hard  swearing"  in  this  case,  and  had  said  that  he  had  to 
do  it,  for  he  was  "out  of  money."* 

Cases  of  Alibi. — The  other  witness  relied  upon  by  the 
piosecution  to  prove  the  identity  of  Dr.  Robinson's  murderers, 
was  Thomas  Butterwood,  a  miner,  who  had  also  beheld  two 
men  running  from  the  scene  of  the  murder  just  after  it  was 
committed.  He  did  not  see  their  faces,  but  recognized  their 
forms  as  those  of  Alexander  Burt  and  Brigham  Y.  Hampton, 
whose  acquaintance  he  formed  later.  In  refutation  of  Butter- 
wood's  attempt  at  identification,  it  was  proved  by  a  number  of 
witnesses  that  Mr.  Burt,  on  the  night  of  the  fatal  22nd,  was  at 
home  playing  checkers  with  several  friends,  from  half  past  nine 
until  after  twelve  (the  murder  took  place  a  little  before  mid- 
night) ;  and  that  he  and  Hampton,  between  nine  and  ten,  had 
i/one  home  together  from  a  circus  performance  near  the  City 


*Soon  after  Baker's  confession  of  perjury  President  Young  with- 
drew his  standing  offer  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  arrest  and  con- 
viction of  the  murderers  of  Dr.  Robinson;  it  appearing-  that  the  various 
rewards  offered  for  that  purpose,  aggregating  nearly  ten  thousand 
dollars,  constituted  an  inducement  to  unprincipled  men  to  perjure 
themselves  by  engaging  in  schemes  to  convict  innocent  persons. 


JUDGE  MclvEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."          283 

Hall;  both  these  officers  then  residing  in  the  western  part  of 
town.  Hampton  entered  his  house  first,  leaving  Burt  to  pur- 
sue his  way  homeward.  It  also  came  out  in  evidence  that 
Hampton  was  a  semi-invalid  at  the  time,  troubled  with  pneu- 
monia, and,  according  to  the  statement  of  his  physician,  Dr. 
T.  S.  Ormsby,  "could  not  have  run  a  block."  Baker,  in  his 
affidavit,  stated  that  after  the  investigation  before  Judge  Mc- 
Kean  began,  he  had  a  conversation  with  Butterwood,  during 
which  the  latter  informed  him  that  he  also  had  been  hired  to 
testify  in  this  case,  and  that  his  testimony  was  not  true. 

Indicted  and  Imprisoned. — This  man  Baker  seems  to  have 
been  one  who  could  change  his  principles  and  his  attitude  with 
about  the  same  ease  that  a  chameleon  changes  its  colors.  After 
signing  and  swearing  to  the  affidavit  in  question,  he  was  in- 
duced by  someone  to  repeat  his  former  story  to  the  Grand  Jury, 
and  that  body — a  sample  open  venire  creation — ignoring  all 
evidence  favorable  to  the  accused,  indicted  Blythe,  Toms, 
Hampton  and  Burt  for  murder.  Judge  McKean  sent  these 
men  to  prison,  refusing  a  request  from  them,  presented  by 
counsel,  for  an  examination  of  Baker  on  the  charge  of  false 
swearing.  The  prisoners  were  kept  first  at  the  City  Jail,  and 
then  at  Camp  Douglas.* 

The  "Mormon"  Leader  in  Court. — Much  astonishment  was 
evinced  in  some  circles,  when  it  was  learned,  just  as  the  new 
year  dawned,  that  Brigham  Young,  the  alleged  fugitive  from 
justice,  had  returned  to  face  his  accusers.  Through  mud  and 
snow,  through  tempests  and  torrents,  traveling  mostly  by  team 
a  distance  of  four  hundred  miles,  the  aged  leader  had  come, 
ir.  response  to  the  Court's  mandate,  to  answer  the  charges 
laid  at  his  door.  Or,  as  the  Salt  Lake  Herald  put  it,  "to  show 
the  little  terriers  who  had  been  barking  at  him,  that,  strong  in 
the  conviction  of  justice  and  right,  he  had  faith  in  the  ultimate 
verdict  of  the  people."  Even  the  Tribune,  with  commendable 
magnanimity,  half  praised  the  conduct  of  the  defendant  on  that 
occasion. f 

*Baker,  charged  with  perjury,  had  a  hearing-  before  Alderman  Jeter 
Clinton;  Judge  Hoge  appearing  for  the  people,  and  General  Maxwell 
for  the  defendant.  The  latter  waived  examination  and  was  remanded 
to  the  custody  of  the  United  States  Marshal.  Later  he  was  released 
on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  issued  by  Judge  Strickland  in  the  tem- 
porary absence  of  Judge  McKean,  and  for  a  season  disappeared  from 
view.  Baker's  next  appearance  was  in  the  role  of  a  common  thief, 
convicted  of  grand  larceny  in  the  Probate  Court  of  Salt  Lake  County. 
This  time  Judge  Boreman  came  to  his  rescue  with  a  habeas  corpus 
writ,  ordering  his  liberation  on  the  ground  that  the  statute  giving 
criminal  jurisdiction  to  the  probate  courts  was  invalid. 

tWhile  President  Young  was  on  his  way  to  Salt  Lake  City  an 
incident  occurred  illustrative  of  General  Connor's  naturally  generous 
disposition,  and  indicative  of  the  change  that  had  come  over  him 


2S4      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Bail  Refused — Another  Postponement. — It  was  January 
2nd,  1872,  when  President  Young,  with  his  attorneys,  appeared 
before  Chief  Justice  McKean,  and  asked  to  be  admitted  to  bail 
in  the  murder  case  then  pending  against  him.  His  counsel 
represented  that  the  defendant  was  feeble,  being  in  his  seventy- 
first  year,  and  that  confinement  in  the  Penitentiary  might 
prove  fatal  to  him.  District  Attorney  Bates  did  not  oppose  the 
request  for  bail,  but  wanted  it  fixed  at  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars ;  a  proposition  that  brought  Mr.  Fitch  to  his  feet  with 
a  protest  against  the  excessive  demand.  He  declared  that 
the  defense  stood  ready  to  furnish  any  bail  that  might  be  re- 
quired, but  the  amount  of  half  a  million  dollars  was  unprece- 
dented in  American  criminal  history. 

Judge  McKean  refused  to  admit  the  defendant  to  bail, 
but  out  of  consideration  for  his  age  and  infirmities,  he  sug- 
gested that  the  United  States  Marshal,  in  the  exercise  of  his 
discretion,  might  permit  President  Young  to  remain  in  his  own 
home,  guarded  by  deputy  marshals.  Marshal  Patrick  acted 
upon  this  humane  suggestion. 

Mr.  Bates  was  now  summoned  to  Washington,  to  report 
to  the  new  Attorney  General,  Mr.  Williams,  upon  conditions 
in  Utah.  At  his  request  a  postponement  of  further  proceedings 
was  ordered  by  Judge  McKean. 

McKean  versus  Bates. — Prior  to  his  departure  for  the 
East,  the  District  Attorney  had  been  prevailed  upon  to  use  his 
influence  so  that  President  Young  and  other  defendants  might 
bo  admitted  to  bail.  Attorney  General  Williams  having  con- 
sented, Assistant  District  Attorney  James  L.  High  made  a 
motion  to  that  effect  in  the  District  Court  at  Salt  Lake  City. 
Judgre  McKean  denied  the  motion,  and  supplemented  his  re- 
fusal with  a  verbal  attack  upon  the  absent  Mr.  Bates,  whom 
he  accused  of  withholding  information  concerning  these  cases 
from  the  Attorney  General,  and  of  making  misstatements 
relative  to  affairs  in  this  Territory.  McKean  followed  Bates 
to  Washington,  for  the  purpose  of  counteracting  his  influence 
there.  . 

It  was  now  apparent  that  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  Dis- 
trict Attorney  did  not  see  eye  to  eye.  Mr.  Bates  had  found 

since  his  first  arrival  in  Utah.  The  President  was  at  Beaver,  when 
the  General  arrived  at  that  point  from  Pioche,  also  bound  for  the 
Utah  capital.  Superintendent  Musser  of  the  Deseret  Telegraph  Line, 
who  was  a  member  of  the  President's  party,  requested  from  Connor 
the  courtesy  of  silence,  in  order  that  the  defendant's  purpose  to  ap- 
pear voluntarily  in  court  might  not  he  thwarted.  The  General  wil- 
lingly acceded,  and  seemed  pleased  at  the  confidence  reposed  in  him. 
"Tell  President  Young,"  said  he,  "that  if  he  desires  it,  T  will  go  bail 
for  him  in  any  amount."  The  pledge  to  maintain  secrecy  was  faith- 
fully kept. 


JUDGK  McKKAX  AND  IMS  "MISSION."  285 

matters  in  a  great  muddle;  one  of  his  first  discoveries  being 
that  the  Federal  courts  in  Utah  were  without  Government 
funds,  and  that  a  debt  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  was  piled  up 
against  them  for  means  advanced  by  private  individuals.  He 
had  resolved  to  make  a  plain  statement  of  the  situation  to  the 
national  authorities,  with  a  view  to  ending  a  condition  of 
affairs  that  was  fast  drifting  into  confusion.  Hence  the  trouble 
between  him  and  Judge  McKean. 

First  Biennial  Legislature. — Let  us  now  consider  some 
events  that  were  happening  outside  the  judicial  arena.  The 
Legislative  Assembly  of  the  Territory  of  Utah,  which  had  been 
meeting  annually,  convened  in  its  first  biennial  session  on  the 
8th  of  January,  1872.  This  change  was  in  conformity  to  a 
recent  Act  of  Congress.  The  .place  of  meeting  was  the  City 
Hall,  Salt  Lake  City;  and  the  session  was  made  memorable  by 
another  effort  for  Statehood,  launched  by  the  people's  repre- 
sentatives. Never  before  had  they  been  so  earnest  in  their 
endeavors  to  throw  off  the  shackles  of  the  Territorial  system. 

Constitutional  Convention  of  1872. — A  bill  providing  for 
a  Constitutional  Convention  passed  both  houses  of  the  Legis- 
lature, but  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Woods.  The  lawmakers 
then  adopted  a  resolution  containing  the  provisions  of  the 
vetoed  bill,  and  appointed  the  5th  of  February  as  the  time  for 
electing  the  delegates  who  were  to  compose  the  Convention. 
Distinctions  of  party  and  creed  were  set  aside.  The  Salt  Lake 
County  delegation,  when  elected,  stood  as  follows:  "Mor- 
mons"— Orson  Pratt,  Albert  Carrington,  Aurelius  Miner,  John 
Sharp,  Albert  P.  Rockwood,  Reuben  Miller,  William  Jennings, 
George  Q.  Cannon,  John  T.  Caine  and  Zerubbabel  Snow. 
'Gentiles"— David  E.  Buell,  William  Haydon,  Thomas  P. 
Akers,  Thomas  Fitch,  P.  Edward  Connor,  Enos  D.  Hoge, 
Frank  Fuller,  Eli  M.  Barnum  and  Hadley  D.  Johnson.  Gen- 
eral Connor  declined  to  act,  claiming  that  his  residence  was 
still  in  California. 

For  and  Against  Statehood. — The  Convention  chose  as  its 
permanent  chairman,  General  Barnum.  When  the  regular 
order  of  business  was  reache'd,  Judge  Haydon  moved  an  ad- 
journment sine  die.  He  stated  that  he  had  been  elected  a 
member  without  his  consent,  and  was  opposed  to  a  State  gov- 
ernment for  Utah,  giving  as  his  reasons:  (1)  That  the  people 
had  not  declared  in  favor  of  it;  (2)  that  the  population  of  the 
Territory  was  insufficient;*  (3)  that  the  increased  taxation 

*The  United  States  census  for  1870  gave  Utah  a  population  of 
86,786,  of  which  two  or  three  thousand  were  "Gentiles."  The  figures 
were  considered  incomplete,  entire  settlements  having  been  omitted  by 
the  census  takers. 


286      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  LUSTORV  OP  UTAH. 

would  be  an  onerous  burden  on  the  citizens;  and  (4)  that  the 
Convention  had  been  called  without  the  authority  of  Federal 
or  Territorial  law.  Most  of  these  objections  had  been  raised 
by  Governor  Woods  in  his  veto  message. 

The  motion  led  to  a  long  and  animated  discussion,  reach- 
ing to  the  close  of  the  third  day.  The  principal  speakers  were 
General  Buell,  Thomas  Fitch,  Colonel  Akers,  Hadley  D.  John- 
son, General  Barnum,  George  Q.  Cannon,  and  Judge  Haydon. 

Fitch,  "The  Silver-Tongued." — Mr.  Fitch  made  a  masterly 
speech,  embodying  the  review  already  mentioned,  and  advo- 
cating a  concession  regarding  plural  marriage.  "I  stand  here 
today,"  said  he,  "to  advocate  the  surrender  of  polygamy.  * 
*  *  I  am  not  here  to  attack  polygamy  from  a  theological, 
moral,  or  physical — but  from  a. political  standpoint.  Certainly 
I  do  not  propose  to  question  the  pure  motives  or  the  honesty 
of  those  who  believe  in  and  practice  it.  *  *  *  All  the  ad- 
vantages claimed  for  this  system  may  be  actual,  but  neverthe- 
less the  fact  exists  that  polygamy  is  an  ano'maly  in  this  Re- 
public, existing  hitherto  by  the  sufferance  of  a  people  who  now 
declare  it  shall  exist  no  longer.'-'  The  orator  dilated  upon 
Chief  Justice  McKean,  referring  to  him  as  "that  most  dan- 
gerous of  all  public  functionaries — a  judge  with  a  mission." 
There  was  no  safety  in  Utah  without  a  State  Government,  and 
there  could  be  no  State  Government  without  concessions.* 

*Mr.  Fitch  went  on  tp  say:  "The  mineral  deposits  of  Utah  have 
attracted  here  a  large  number  of  active,  restless,  adventurous  men,  and 
with  them  have  come  many  who  are  unscrupulous,  many  who  are  reck- 
less; the  hereditary  foes  of  industry,  order,  and  law.  This  class,  find- 
ing the  courts  and  Federal  officers  arrayed  against  the  Mormons,  have 
with  pleased  alacrity  placed  themselves  on  the  side  of  courts  and 
officers.  Elements  ordinarily  discordant  blend  together  in  the  same 
seething  cauldron.  The  officers  of  justice  find  allies  in  those  men  who, 
differently  surrounded,,  would  be  their  foes;  the  bagnios  and  the  hells 
shout  hosannas  to  the  courts.  *  *  *  All  believe  that  license  will 
be  granted  by  the  leaders,  in  order  to  advance  their  sacred  cause,  and 
the  result  is  an  immense  support  from  those  friends  of  immorality 
and  architects  of  disorder,  who  care  nothing  for  the  cause,  but  every- 
thing for  the  license.  *  *  Judge  McKean  and  Governor  Woods 
and  the  Walker  Brothers  and  others  are  doubtless  pursuing  a  purpose 
which  they  believe  in  the  main  to  be  wise  and  just,  but  their  following 
is  of  a  different  class.  There  is  a  nucleus  of  reformers  and  a  mass  of 
ruffians,  a  center  of  zealots  and  a  circumference  of  plunderers.  *  *  * 
Every  interest  of  industry  is  disastrously  affected  by  this  unholy 
alliance;  every  right  of  the  citizen  is  threatened,  if  not  assailed,  by  the 
existence  of  this  combination.  Your  local  magistrates  are  successfully 
defied,  your  local  laws  are  disregarded,  your  municipal  ordinances  are 
trampled  into  the  mire,  theft  and  murder  walk  through  your  streets 
without  detection,  drunkards  howl  their  orgies  in  the  shadow  of  your 
altars,  the  glare  and  tumult  of  drinking  saloons,  the  glitter  of  gam- 
bling hells,  and  the  painted  flaunt  of  the  bawd  plying  her  trade,  now 
vex  the  repose  of  streets  which  befpretime  heard  no  sound  to  disturb 
their  quiet  save  the  busy  hum  of  industry,  the  clatter  of  trade,  and 
the  musical  tinkle  of  mountain  streams." 


JUDGE  McKEAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."          287 

Judge  Haydon's  Speech. — All  but  one  of  the  speakers  sup- 
ported the  Statehood  movement.  The  exception  was  Judge 
11  ay  don,  whose  argument  was  able  and  eloquent.  He  eulo- 
gized Judge  McKean,  and  criticized  Mr.  Fitch  for  his  strictures 
upon  Federal  officers.  With  tactful  diplomacy  he  entreated 
the  "Mormon"  delegates  not  to  look  with  favor  upon  the  prop- 
osition to  surrender  polygamy.  "What  would  you  think,"  said 
he.  "of  a  Mohammedan  who,  to  gain  a  peaceful  entrance  to  a 
river  and  thereby  enrich  his  coffers,  would  be  willing  to  sac- 
rifice the  Crescent  for  the  Greek  Cross?  *  *  *  What  will 
the  world  say  of  a  convention  composed  almost  entirely  of 
Eatter-day  Saints,  among  whom  are  six  Apostles  and  twenty 
Bishops,  ready  and  willing  to  sacrifice  one  of  their  divine  ordi- 
nances for  the  sake  of  a  State  government?  Hearken  to  the 
words  of  a  'Gentile'  who  is  no  enemy  of  yours,  but  who  has 
every  reason  to  be  your  friend ;  who  has  no  favors  to  ask  ex- 
cept those  that  one  Christian  may  rightly  demand  of  another: 
Stay  where  you  are  and  abide  your  time.  'Learn  to  labor  and 
to  wait'  until  a  new  ordinance  shall  manifest  itself  for  your 
guidance." 

To  Judge  Haydon's  brilliant  speech,  Mr.  Fitch  wittily  re- 
plied :  "The  difference  between  my  colleague  and  myself  may 
be  briefly  stated  thus :  I  wish  the  people  of  Utah  to  give  up 
McKean  and  polygamy ;  he  desires  the  people  of  Utah  to  stand 
by  polygamy  and  McKean." 

The  motion  to  adjourn  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  ninety-three 
to  one.  The  Ordinance  and  Bill  of  Rights,  reported  from  com- 
mittee on  the  fourth  day,  inquired  of  Congress  what  conditions 
relative  to  plural  marriage  would  satisfy  the  Nation.  But 
there  was  no  thought  of  abandoning  plural  marriage,  and  no 
concession  was  made. 

Close  of  the  Convention. — The  Convention  closed,  after 
electing  Thomas  Fitch,  George  Q.  Cannon,  and  Frank  Fuller, 
to  co-operate  with  Delegate  Hooper  in  presenting  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  Congress  the  claims  of  the  proposed  State  of  Deseret. 
The  Constitution  was  submitted  to  the  people  and  ratified  by 
a  majority  of  nearly  twenty-five  thousand,  there  being  only  365 
votes  against  it.  At  the  same  time  Mr.  Fuller  was  elected 
Representative.  About  a  month  later  the  Legislature  named 
William  H.  Hooper  and  Thomas  Fitch  as  United  States  Sen- 
ators. 

National  Political  Organizations. — The  labors  of  the  Con- 
vention were  supplemented  by  a  partial  organization  of  the 
national  political  parties.  A  call,  signed  by  Frank  Fuller, 
Daniel  H.  Wells,  Thomas  Fitch,  William  Jennings,  and  others, 
was  issued  to  those  holding  Republican  principles,  inviting 
them  to  send  delegates  to  a  Territorial  Convention,  to  be  held 


288      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

on  the  5th  of  April,  at  Salt  Lake  City.  The  Democrats,  rep- 
resented by  Thomas  P.  Akers,  Hadley  D.  Johnson,  Enos  D. 
Hoge,  and  others,  issued  a  call  for  a  similar  convention,  to 
meet  on  the  8th  of  that  month.  This  was  the  first  real  attempt 
to  harmonize  local  with  national  politics.  The  Territorial  Re- 
publican Convention  chose  Thomas  Fitch  and  Frank  Fuller, 
and  the  Territorial  Democratic  Convention,  Thomas  P.  Akers 
and  Eli  M.  Barnum,  as  delegates  to  the  national  conventions  of 
their  respective  parties.* 

"The  Gentile  League  of  Utah."— The  leaders  of  the  Lib- 
eral Party  feared  that  Utah  was  about  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Union.  They  would  have  considered  such  an  event  a  calamity, 
even  with  polygamy  surrendered.  They  were  not  fighting 
polygamy,  except  as  an  incident ;  some  of  the  most  ultra  of  the 
"Anti-Mormons"  frankly  confessing  their  indifference  to  it. 
Their  real  object  of  attack  was  the  Church,  or  the  power 
wielded  by  the  Priesthood  in  temporal  affairs;  a  power  that 
would  exist  even  were  polygamy  abandoned,  and  be  en- 
trenched, according  to  their  view,  all  the  more  strongly  behind 
Statehood.  They  therefore  opposed  Utah's  admission,  and 
held  aloof  from  the  proposed  national  alignments.  "The  Gen- 
tile League  of  Utah,"  which  was  formed  about  that  time,  had 
as  one  of  its  objects  the  defeat  of  the  Statehood  movement. 
Its  main  purpose,  however,  was  the  overthrow  of  "The  Mor- 
mon Power."f 

The  Englebrecht  Decision. — Such  was  the  tense  state  of 
affairs,  when  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
15th  of  April,  1872,  rendered  its  decision  in  the  Englebrecht 
case,  an  event  of  tremendous  importance  to  this  Territory.  It 
was  the  unanimous  expression  of  the  Supreme  Bench,  and  was 
voiced  by  Chief  Justice  Salmon  P.  Chase.  According  to  that 
high  decision,  the  District  Courts  in  Utah  were  not  United 
States  Courts,  in  the  sense  that  Judge  McKean  and  his  asso- 


*Similar  action  was  taken  thereafter  at  the  beginning  of  each 
Presidential  campaign,  but  this  was  about  all  that  resulted  from  the 
initial  effort  to  divide  the  people  of  Utah  on  national  party  lines. 

tThe  "G.  L.  U's"  brooked  no  interference  with  their  public  pro- 
ceedings. Some  of  them  went  armed  and  prepared  to  resent  with 
violence  any  "coup  d'etat"  on  the  part  of  their  opponents.  At  one  of 
their  open-air  rallies,  in  front  of  the  Salt  Lake  House,  Judge  Haydon 
threatened  that  if  the  populace  interrupted  the  program,  the  street 
would  be  seen  "running  down  with  blood."  At  another  out-door 
gathering  the  chairman,  Judge  Strickland,  made  a  similar  threat. 
"Napoleon's  treatment  of  the  Paris  mobs"  was  cited  as  a  precedent. 
The  interruptions  complained  of  were  usually  in  the  form  of  retorts, 
not  always  courteous,  or  denials  to  statements  made  by  the  speakers, 
some  of  whom  were  in  the  habit  of  assailing  with  harsh  epithets  the 
"Mormon"  leaders.  The  "lie"  would  pass  back  and  forth,  and  mutual 
irritation  result. 


JUDGE  McKKAN  AND  HIS  "MISSION."  289 

dates  had  held  them  to  be;  and  the  Territorial  Marshal  and 
Attorney  General  were  legal  officers  of  those  courts.  The 
Strickland-McKean  ruling  upon  the  selection  of  jurors  was  set 
aside,  and  the  grand  and  petit  juries  formed  thereunder  were 
declared  illegal  and  their  findings  void. 

The  effect  of  the  decree  was  to  quash  over  one  hundred 
indictments,  and  to  liberate  from  prison  or  release  from  bonds 
a  large  number  of  persons,  including  President  Young  and 
Mayor  Wells;  also  Judge  Stout,  General  Kimball,  and  the 
four  men  who  had  been  indicted  for  the  Robinson  murder. 
"The  righteousness  of  the  decision,"  said  the  Chicago  Post, 
"will  be  applauded  throughout  the  country,  despite  the  re- 
gret, equally  universal,  that  such  a  decision  must  carry 
with  it  so  many  mortifying  consequences."  According 
to  the  San  Francisco  News-Letter,  it  was  "a  virtual  declaration 
by  the  highest  authority  in  the  land,  that  no  portion  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States — however  abhorrent  their  religious 
faith — can  be  deprived  of  their  liberties  except  by  due  process 
of  law." 

False  Telegrams  Refuted. — Sensational  dispatches,  alleg- 
ing "a  terrible  condition  of  affairs"  as  the  result  of  the  Engle- 
brecht  decision,  were  sent  from  Salt  Lake  City,  and  published 
in  the  New  York  Herald,  in  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  and 
other  influential  journals.  So  abominably  false  were  these 
reports,  that  many  leading  "Gentile"  citizens,  impelled  by  a 
sense  of  fairness,  and  in  order  that  business  men  abroad  who 
had  interests  in  the  Territory  might  not  be  misled,  joined  in 
a  telegram  to  the  press  of  the  United  States,  refuting  the  state- 
ments put  forth,  and  declaring  that  life  and  property  were  as 
secure  in  Utah  as  in  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  Union.* 

*The  signers  of  this  telegram  were  such  men  as  Warren  Hussey, 
president  of  the  First  National  Bank;  Theo.  F.  Tracy,  agent  of  Wells 
Fargo  &  Co.;  B.  M.  Durell,  president  of  the  Salt  Lake  City  National 
Bank;  Thomas  P.  Akers,  Eli  M.  Barnnm,  Hadley  D.  Johnson,  Robert 
C.  Chambers,  Joab  Lawrence,  A.  W.  Nuckolls,  and  George  F.  Whitney. 


18 


XXIII. 

SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES. 

1872-1877. 

The  Japanese  Embassy — Other  Visitors. — Just  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1872,  Utah  re- 
ceived a  passing  visit  from  the  Japanese  Embassy,  including 
various  dignitaries  of  the  ancient  empire.  Their  object  in  com- 
ing to  America  was  to  establish  diplomatic  and  commercial 
relations  with  the  United  States.  They  were  accompanied  by 
Charles  E.  DeLong,  United  States  Minister  to  Japan,  and  by 
the  Japanese  Consul  at  San  Francisco.  Salt  Lake  City  enter- 
tained the  visitors,  and  they  were  also  the  guests  of  President 
Young,  at  his  home,  and  of  General  Morrow,  at  Fort  Douglas. 
By  that  amended  title  the  "Camp"  had  now  become  known. 

During  the  following  summer  and  autumn,  the  season  of 
the  Grant-Greeley  presidential  campaign,  Senator  John  A. 
Logan,  of  Illinois,  made  a  speech  at  the  Liberal  Institute.  In 
«•  bis  brief  allusion  to  local  affairs  he  referred  to  the  rich  re- 
sources of  the  country,  and  complimented  the  industry  and 
energy  of  the  people.  His  speech  proper  was  a  strong  ad- 
vocacy of  the  re-election  of  President  Grant.  Other  comers 
that  season  were  Secretary  of  the  Interior  Delano,  Generals 
George  B.  McClellan,  James  A.  Garfield,  A.  W.  Doniphan,  and 
Thomas  L.  Kane ;  Honorable  James  G.  Blame,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives ;  Cyrus  W.  Field,  pioneer  of  the  At- 
lantic Cable  System ;  and  Reverend  Charles  Kingsley,  English 
author  and  Chaplain  to  Queen  Victoria.  All  were  hospitably 
entertained.  Speaker  Blaine  and  partv  by  the  authorities  of 
Salt  Lake  City/- 
Threatened Indian  Outbreak. — The  Indian  troubles  of 
1865-1869  had  ended  all  organized  warfare  on  the  part  of  the 

^General  Doniphan  and  General  Kane  were  personages  of  special 
interest  in  Utah;  the  former  having  been  a  friend  of  Joseph  Smith, 
and  his  attorney  during  the  "Mormon"  troubles  in  Missouri.  General 
Kane,  the  mediator  of  1858,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  two  sons,  had 
traveled  West  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  being  an  invalid  from  the 
efi'ect  of  wounds  received  while  fighting  for  the  Union.  During  his 
stay,  from  November,  1872,  to  February.  1873  he  visited  Southern  Utah 
and  was  the  guest  of  President  Young.  Garfield's  visit  led  to  the  chris- 
tening of  a  steamer  on  the  Great  Salt  Lake — "The  General  Garfield," 
which  was  used  for  many  years  as  a  pleasure  boat.  An  attempt  to 
navigate  the  Lake  'for  commercial  purposes  had  been  made  by  General 
Connor  and  others  several  years  before,  when  they  launched  the  "Kate 
Connor,"  a  small  steamer  designed  to  carry  Rush  Valley  ores  to 
Corinne. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  291 

savages  in  Utah;  but  the  spring  of  1872  witnessed  some  desul- 
tory depredations  which  threatened  at  one  time  a  general  out- 
break. The  primal  cause  was  bad  treatment  of  the  red  men 
by  dishonest  Government  agents,  and  acts  of  lawlessness  by 
renegade  whites.  These  difficulties  did  not  originate  in  Utah, 
but  spread  from  the  northern  Territories  to  this  region.  Hos- 
tilities in  Southern  Utah  and  in  Arizona  had  been  barely 
averted  by  the  good  offices  of  Jacob  Hamblin,  Indian  inter- 
preter, who,  at  Fort  Defiance,  in  November,  had  concluded  a 
treaty  of  peace  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  this  Territory  with 
the  principal  chiefs  of  the  Navajos. 

Special  Agent  Dodge. — Colonel  G.  W.  Dodge,  Special  In- 
dian Agent  for  the  Government,  sought  to  redress  the  griev- 
ances complained  of  by  the  savages.  He  distributed  among 
them  large  quantities  of  flour,  beef  and  other  supplies;  but 
these  pacific  measures  did  not  suffice  to  placate  the  unruly. 
They  became  more  and  more  insolent,  and  by  persistent  beg- 
ging and  stealing  levied  a  burdensome  tax  upon  the  settlements 
in  Central  Utah.  There  was  a  series  of  raids,  in  which  several 
white  men  were  killed,  and  a  large  number  of  horses  and  cattle 
driven  off. 

At  this  time  hundreds  of  Indians  were  paying  friendly 
visits  to  the  settlements  of  Sanpete,  Sevier,  Juab  and  Utah 
counties,  and  as  some  of  them  moved  about  in  small  com- 
panies, it  was  difficult  to  distinguish  which  of  the  roving  bands 
were  hostile.  Colonel  Dodge,  to  simplify  the  situation,  ordered 
all  peaceable  red  men  to  return  to  the  reservations.  He  in- 
structed the  people  not  to  feed  them,  as  he  would  furnish  them 
plenty  if  they  obeyed  orders.  The  savages  were  incensed,  and 
matters  looked  threatening.  Colonel  J.  L.  Ivie,  a  militia 
officer,  telegraphed  to  General  Wells,  asking  if  he  should  call 
out  his  regiment  to  defend  the  settlers;  but  General  Wells  was 
powerless,  because  of  the  proclamations  of  Governor  Shaffer 
and  Acting  Governor  Black,  forbidding  the  militia  to  assemble 
and  bear  arms.  Governor  Woods,  when  appealed  to,  refused 
to  rescind  the  prohibitive  order. 

General  Morrow's  Service. — At  this  juncture  General 
Morrow  took  the  field,  with  troops  from  Fort  Douglas,  and 
through  the  co-operation  of  friendly  Indians  and  leading  men 
in  the  settlements,  secured  a  council  with  several  chiefs,  and 
made  a  treaty  with  them  at  Springville.  The  obedience  ren- 
dered by  the  people  to  the  Shaffer-Black  edicts,  in  the  face  of 
such  trying  conditions,  caused  Morrow  to  express  the  opinion, 
in  his  report  to  Agent  Dodge,  that  there  was  "not  another 
American  community  in  the  Nation  which  would  have  endured 
half  the  outrages  these  people  have  endured,  before  rising  up 
as  one  man  to  drive  out  the  savage  invaders  at  the  point  of  the 


292      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

bayonet."  "On  any  principle  of  self  defense,"  said  the  Gen- 
eral, "they  would  have  been  justified."  In  the  same  report  he 
recommended  that  some  recompense  be  made  to  the  people  for 
their  losses,  and  that  this  be  done  from  the  appropriation  made 
by  Congress  for  these  tribes.  Colonel  Dodge  replied:  "I 
fully  concur  with  you  in  all  the  statements  you  have  made," 
and  "I  shall  do  everything  in  my  power  to  bring  such  relief  to 
the.  sufferers  as  the  law  will  allow."  The  Agent  also  sup- 
ported the  General's  application  on  behalf  of  the  Indians,  ask- 
ing permission  for  a  delegation  of  chiefs  to  visit  President 
Grant;  an  application  favorably  acted  upon  in  October,  1872, 
when  four  of  the  principal  braves  left  Salt  Lake  City,  in  com- 
pany with  Colonel  Dodge,  to  confer  with  "The  Great  Father  at 
Washington."* 

Utah  Affairs  in  Congress. — "Anti-Mormonism"  continued 
to  rear  its  head  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Delegate  Clagett,  of 
Montana,  declared  in  the  House  of  Representatives  that  free- 
dom of  speech  and  of  the  press  and  of  public  worship  were  un- 
known in  Utah,  and  that  Brigham  Young  had  raised  the  Brit- 
ish flag  at  Salt  Lake  City.  Prominent  "Gentiles"  residing  in 
this  Territory  joined  in  a  request  to  Representative  Sargent,  of 
California,  that  he  enter  an  emphatic  denial  of  all  such  allega- 
tions. Delegate  Hooper  answered  Clagett  on  the  floor  of  the 
House,  denouncing  his  radical  speech  as  untrue  from  beginning 
to  end.  Mr.  Clagett,  who  had  introduced  an  "Anti-Mormon" 
measure,  one  of  many  presented  during  that  period,  followed 
up  his  verbal  attack  with  a  personal  call  upon  President  Grant, 
in  company  with  Delegate  Samuel  A.  Merritt,  of  Idaho.  They 
urged  upon  the  President  the  necessity  of  a  special  message  to 
Congress  on  Utah  affairs.  The  Chief  Magistrate  had  already 
visited  the  judiciary  committees  of  the  Senate  and  the  House, 
urging  the  immediate  passage  of  the  Logan  Bill,  which  pro- 
posed to  give  to  Federal  officers  in  this  Territory  the  powers 
they  had  exercised  under  the  unlawful  rulings  of  Judge  McKean. 

President  Grant's  Special  Message. — The  special  message 
advised  by  the  Montana  and  Idaho  delegates  came  in  February, 
1873.  It  advocated  special  legislation  providing  for  the  selec- 
tion of  grand  and  petit  jurors  by  persons  entirely  independent 
of  those  who  were  "determined  not  to  enforce  any  act  of  Con- 
gress obnoxious  to  them ;"  and  advised  the  taking  from  the 

*The  next  Indian  scare  was  in  August,  1875,  when  certain  agitators 
tried  to  mislead  the  Government  by  charging  an  alliance  between 
"Mormons"  and  Indians;  a  reported  attack  upon  Corinne  by  peaceable 
red  men  at  or  near  Malad,  being  one  of  the  fictions  invented  to  im- 
pose upon  the  credulity  of  people  at  a  distance.  The  "Corinne  Scare" 
was  a  base  fraud,  fully  exposed,  but  as  usual  the  Indians  had  to  suffer. 
All  were  ordered  back  to  the  reservations,  including  those  who  had 
become  civilized  and  were  peacefully  cultivating  the  soil. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  293 

probate  courts  of  "any  pow'er  to  interfere  with  or  impede  the 
action  of  the  courts  held  by  the  United  States  Judges."  The 
President  expressed  apprehension  that  unless  Congress  took 
immediate  steps  in  this  matter,  turbulence  and  disorder  would 
follow,  rendering  military  interference  a  necessary  result. 

George  Q.  Cannon,  Delegate. — Meantime,  in  August,  1872, 
George  Q.  Cannon  had  been  elected  to  succeed  William  H. 
Hooper  as  Delegate  in  Congress.  At  the  same  election  George 
R.  Maxwell  received  1,942  votes,  as  against  20,969,  cast  for 
Mr.  Cannon.  General  Maxwell,  who  hade  made  an  unsuccess- 
ful contest,  two  years  before,  against  Captain  Hooper,  a  mo- 
nogamist, now  entered  the  field  against  an  avowed  polygamist. 
He  first  protested  against  the  issuance  of  the  election  certificate 
to  his  victorious  opponent,  charging  him  not  only  with  polyg- 
amy, but  with  disloyalty.  The  Governor  and  the  Secretary, 
before  whom  the  protest  was  made,  had  no  legal  discretion 
in  the  matter,  but  must  issue  the  certificate  to  the  person  re- 
ceiving the  greatest  number  of  votes;  this  being  the  law  upon 
the  subject.  Mr.  Cannon,  therefore,  obtained  the  document. 
The  contest  was  then  carried  to  Washington. 

Delegate  Cannon  presented  his  certificate  of  election  in 
December,  1873,  asking  to  be  sworn  in  and  admitted  to  his 
seat.  Objection  was  raised  by  Mr.  Merriam,  of  New  York, 
who  offered  a  resolution  reciting  that  Mr.  Cannon  had  taken 
an  oath  inconsistent  with  citizenship  and  his  obligations  as  a 
Delegate,  and  was  guilty, of  practices  violative  and  in  defiance 
of  the  laws.  The  resolution  proposed  a  reference  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Elections.  Mr.  Cox,  also  of  New  York,  opposed  the 
resolution,  and  a  motion  made  by  him,  that  Mr.  Cannon  be 
sworn  in,  having  prevailed,  the  oath  of  office  was  administered 
to  the  Delegate  from  Utah.  The  Committee  on  Elections, 
before  whom  the  question  was  subsequently  carried,  decided 
unanimously  in  favor  of  Mr.  Cannon,  and  a  further  effort  to 
unseat  him  by  an  investigation  of  the  charges  made  by  General 
Maxwell  also  resulted  adversely  to  the  contestant. 

The  Poland  Law. — President  Grant,  in  his  message  to  the 
Vorty-third  Congress,  again  urged  upon  the  law-making  body 
the  necessity  of  legislation  to  prevent  a  state  of  anarchy  in 
Utah.  The  result  of  this  persistent  prodding  was  the  enact- 
ment of  the  Poland  Law,  the  original  bill  for  which  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Houes  of  Representatives,  January  5,  1874,  by 
Representative  Luke  P.  Poland,  of  Vermont.  The  measure 
was  vigorously  opposed.  The  Utah  Legislature  attempted  to 
ward  it  off  by  a  memorial  denying  that  the  "Mormon"  people 
were  disloyal,  and  soliciting  a  committee  of  investigation.  Mat- 
ters went  along  until  May,  when  Mr.  Poland  withdrew  the 


294      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

proposed  measure,  and  substituted  one  more  moderate,  which 
became  a  law  on  the  23rd  of  June. 

The  Poland  Law  repealed  the  Utah  statutes  relating  to 
the  Territorial  Marshal  and  Attorney-General,  and  placed  the 
powers  and  duties  of  those  officers  upon  the  United  States 
Marshal  and  District  Attorney.  The  judgments  and  decrees 
of  the  Probate  Courts  already  executed,  and  those  rendered, 
the  time  to  appeal  from  which  had  expired,  were  validated  and 
confirmed,  but  the  jurisdiction  of  such  courts  was  limited  in 
future  to  settlement  of  estates  of  decedents  and  to  matters  of 
guardianship  and  divorce.  The  jurisdiction  of  Justices  of  the 
Peace  was  slightly  extended,  and  the  appointment  of  U.  S.  Com- 
missioners by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory,  authorized. 
In  trials  for  bigamy  and  polygamy,  and  in  cases  involving 
capital  punishment,  appeals  were  allowed  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Nation.  The  drawing  of  grand  and  petit  jurors 
in  each  district  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Probate  Judge 
and  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court ;  by  which  arrangement 
"Mormons"  and  "Gentiles" — majority  and  minority — were 
given  equal  representation  on  the  jury  list.* 

McKean  Reappointed. — Judge  McKean's  "mission"  in 
Utah  was  practically  ended;  the  Englebrecht  decision  having 
put  a  quietus  upon  it.  But  President  Grant  still  stood  by 
him ;  or,  what  was  equivalent,  still  stood  by  Dr.  Newman,  to 
whose  influence,  according  to  report,  McKean  owed  his  as- 
signment to  the  Supreme  Bench  of  this  Territory.  Grant's 
loyalty  to  his  friends  was  proverbial.  Besides,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  McKean,  after  all,  had  done  nothing  in  Utah 
but  carry  out,  in  his  own  peculiar  way,  the  "Anti-Mormon" 
policy  of  the  Administration.  During  the  same  month  that  the 
Poland  Law  was  enacted,  the  Chief  Justice  was  honored  with  a 
reappointment. 

Official  Changes. — District  Attorney  Bates  had  been  re- 
moved in  December,  1872,  and  William  Carey,  of  Illinois,  ap- 
pointed in  his  stead.  About  the  same  time  General  Maxwell 
succeeded  Colonel  Patrick  as  United  States  Marshal.  Judges 


*  Judge  Baskin  cites  the  case  of  Ferris  versus  Higley,  in  which  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  declared  void  the  act  of  the  Ter- 
ritorial Legislature  conferring  upon  the  Probate  Courts  of  Utah  gen- 
eral jurisdiction  in  civil  and  criminal  cases.  He  tries  to  make  a  point 
out  of  the  fact  that  several  individuals.,  convicted  of  capital  crimes, 
had  been  executed  under  the  judgments  and  decrees  of  those  courts. 
"Of  course,"  savs  he,  "all  the  judgments  and  decrees  rendered  in  said 
courts  were  void."  This  is  a  fair  sample  of  Baskin's  unfairness.  He 
omits  the  date  of  the  Ferris-Higley  decision  (November  16,  1874), 
which  was  several  months  after  the  enactment  of  the  Poland  Law,  and 
fails  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  by  that  law  "the  judgments  and 
decrees"  which  he  pronounces  "void,"  had  all  been  "validated  and  con- 
firmed." See  Poland  Law,  Section  3,  Compiled  Laws  of  Utah  1888. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  295 

Hawley  and  Strickland  had  resigned  in  1873,  under  a  cloud 
of  scandal ;  Hawley  accused  of  bigamy,  and  Strickland  of  hav- 
ing purchased,  with  a  worthless  promissory  note,  the  influence 
that  secured  his  appointment  as  a  Federal  Judge;  the  holder 
of  the  note  being  his  predecessor,  Judge  Drake.  The  places 
vacated  by  these  discredited  magistrates  were  next  held  by 
Phillip  H.  Emerson,  of  Michigan,  and  Jacob  S.  Boreman,  of 
West  Virginia.  William  M.  Mitchell,  of  the  former  State,  had 
been  President  Grant's  first  choice  for  successor  to  Judge 
Hawley,  but  influences  exerted  against  him  prevented  his  con- 
firmation, and  the  appointment  then  went  to  Judge  Emerson. 

Military  and  Municipal  Friction. — In  the  summer  of  1874 
there  was  some  friction  between  the  authorities  at  Fort  Doug- 
las and  the  Police  Department  of  Salt  Lake  City.  The  sym- 
pathies and  associations  of  many  of  the  "boys  in  blue"  were 
with  the  saloon  element,  which  was  hostile  to  the  municipal 
officers  because  of  their  efforts  to  restrain  the  liquor  traffic. 
Consequently  there  were  frequent  disturbances  of  the  peace 
by  drunken  soldiers.  The  Secretary  of  War  had  issued  a  gen- 
eral order  requiring  all  such  offenders  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
military  authorities,  and  at  Fort  Douglas  this  was  interpreted 
to  mean  immunity  from  arrest  and  prosecution  by  the  Police 
Department.  The  immediate  cause  of  the  friction  was  an  in- 
cident that  took  place  on  the  10th  of  June,  when  Thomas 
Hackett,  a  soldier,  brutally  assaulted  an  aged  man,  Ex-Asso- 
ciate Justice  McCurdy ;  the  assault  occurring  on  the  street  in 
Salt  Lake  City.  Hackett  was  arrested  and  taken  to  the  City 
Jail.  Next  morning  Lieutenant  Dinwiddie  demanded  the  pris- 
oner from  Police  Justice  Clinton,  who  refused  to  order  Hack- 
ett's  release.  About  noon  Captain  Gordon  and  a  troop  of 
cavalry  appeared  at  the  City  Hall,  and  the  officer,  after  an 
interview  with  Governor  Woods,  ordered  his  men  to  batter 
down  the  jail  door.  This  they  were  not  able  to  do,  but  tore 
part  of  the  iron  grating  from  a  window,  and  liberated  their 
comrade. 

Soon  afterward  another  offender  from  the  post,  one  Fred- 
erick Bright,  for  drunkenness  and  disturbance,  was  fined  five 
dollars  and  in  default  of  payment  committed  to  jail.  The  Fort 
Douglas  authorities  did  not  repeat  the  procedure  of  the  Hack- 
ett case  in  the  Bright  affair,  but  secured  a  writ  of  habeas  cor- 
pus, upon  which  the  matter  came  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Territory.  That  tribunal  decided  that  the  police  had  the 
right  to  arrest  offending  soldiers,  but  must  surrender  .them 
upon  a  formal  demand  by  the  proper  military  officer,  or  they 
could  be  taken  by  force. 

The  decision  was  equitable,  but  perfect  harmony  was  not 
immediately  restored.  This  fact  coming  to  the  notice  of  Gen- 


296      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

eral  Sheridan,  who  arrived  at  Fort  Douglas  early  in  July,  he 
caused  the  Thirteenth  Infantry,  General  Morrow's  command, 
to  be  superseded  by  the  Fourteenth  Infantry,  under  General 
John  E.  Smith.  The  latter  regiment  reached  the  post  on  the 
27th  of  August. 

Cannon  Defeats  Baskin. — The  same  month  saw  the  re- 
election to  Congress  of  George  Q.  Cannon,  his  opponent  this 
time  being  Robert  N.  Baskin,  who  contested  unsuccessfully 
the  seating  of  the  Delegate-elect.  The  election,  which  was 
also  for  county  officers  and  members  of  the  Legislature,  was 
notable  for  a  riot  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  the  capture  of  Tooele 
County  by  the  Liberals. 

The  Election  Riot. — The  riot  resulted  from  a  collision  be- 
tween the  Police  and  a  special  force  of  Deputies  appointed  In- 
United  States  Marshal  Maxwell  under  the  so-called  "Bayonet 
Law,"  a  statute  made  for  the  reconstruction  period  in  the 
South,  but  afterwards  decided  to  be  unconstitutional.  Max- 
well's attempt  to  control  the  election  brought  confusion  and 
strife.  During  the  afternoon  Mayor  Wells  was  about  to  enter 
the  City  Hall,  when  he  was  seized  by  Deputy  Marshal  J.  M. 
Orr  and  roughly  pulled  into  the  crowd,  amid  shouts  of  "Kill 
him,  kill  him!"  With  his  coat  torn  to  ribbons,  the  Mayor 
was  rescued  and  hurried  into  the  building.  Reappearing  upon 
the  balcony,  he  commanded  the  mob  to  disperse.  The  warn- 
ing was  greeted  with  yells  of  defiance  and  brandishing  of 
weapons,  whereupon  the  Mayor  ordered  the  police  to  clear  the 
path  to  the  polls.  The  front  doors  of  the  City  Hall,  which 
had  closed  upon  him  and  his  rescuers,  were  now  thrown  open, 
and  out  came  the  police  in  solid  column,  charging  upon  the 
crowd,  hitting  right  and  left  with  their  clubs,  and  putting  to 
flight  all  who  opposed  them.  Broken  heads  were  plentiful, 
and  numerous  arrests  followed.  Mayor  Wells  and  Chief  of 
Police  Burt  were  among  those  taken  into  custody ;  but  at  the 
hearing  in  their  case,  before  U.  S,  Commissioner  Toohy,  it  was 
found  that  their  conduct  during  the  riot  had  been  in  pursuance 
of  their  official  duties,  and  the  charges  against  them  were  dis- 
missed. 

In  Tooele  County. — The  election  result  in  Tooele  County 
was  made  possible  by  the  absence  of  a  registration  law.  Elec- 
tors were  required  to  be  residents  and  taxpayers,  and  could 
vote  only  in  the  precinct  where  they  resided ;  the  proof  of 
residence  being  their  names  upon  the  tax  lists.  Tooele  County 
had  less  than  fifteen  hundred  taxpayers,  yet  twenty-two  hun- 
dred votes  were  deposited  in  the  ballot  boxes  on  election  day. 
In  Jacob  City,  a  mining  camp,  one  candidate  received  more 
than  five  hundred  votes  in  excess  of  the  whole  number  of  quali- 
fied voters  in  the  precinct.  Returns  from  other  precincts 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES. 


297 


showed  similar  discrepancies.  A  contest  arose,  and  the  mat- 
ter went  into  the  courts;  Governor  Woods  meanwhile  commis- 
sioning the  officers  elect.  They  were  not  displaced;  Judge 
McKean  ruling  in  their  favor.  In  the  case  of  the  Representa- 
tive, however,  the  final  adjudication  was  with  the  Legislative 
Assembly,  which  found  that 
George  Atkin  was  entitled  to' 
the  office,  and  he  was  accord- 
ingly seated. 

Governor  Axtell. — In  De- 
cember, 1874,  George  L.  Woods 
was  succeeded  as  Governor  of 
Utah  by  Samuel  B.  Axtell,  who 
arrived  at  Salt  Lake  Citv  in 
February,  1875.  A  Western 
man,  who  had  represented  the 
State  of  California  in  Congress, 
the  new  Executive  was  a  friend 
to  Utah,  and  strove  to  serve  the 
entire  people,  refusing  to  be  the 
tool  of  a  clique.  The  "Ring," 
therefore,  had  no  use  for  him  ; 
nor  he  for  them.  Their  organ 
assailed  him  mercilessly — he 
was  the  "Jack-Mormon"  par 
excellence — and  their  influence 
soon  effected  his  removal,  or 
rather,  his  transfer.  In  the 

summer  of  the  same  year  he  was  appointed  Governor  of  New 
Mexico,  and  subsequently  became  Chief  Justice  of  that  Ter- 
ritory; making  an  honorable  record  in  both  positions. 

Governor  Emery. — President  Grant's  next  choice  for  Gov- 
ernor of  Utah  was  George  W.  Emery,  of  Tennessee.  He  re- 
ceived the  appointment  in  June,  1875.  Emery  was  a  personal 
friend  to  the  Chief  Magistrate,  and  proved  himself  a  wise  and 
capable  officer.  By  a  prudent  and  tactful  course,  he  attained 
a  goodly  degree  of  popularity,  without  giving  much  offense  to 
either  side;  a  most  difficult  thing  to  do.  It  was  during  his 
administration  that  "the  marked  ballot,"  which  had  created 
so  much  discussion,  and  out  of  which  so  much  political  capital 
had  been  made,  was  abolished,  and  the  secret  ballot  substi- 
tuted. A  new  penal  code,  adopted  from  the  California  stat- 
utes, was  enacted,  and  the  old  law  repealed  under  which  it  had 
been  proposed  to  punish  polygamous  association  as  adultery. 
The  Governor's  approval  of  the  new  enactment,  while  com- 
mended by  conservative  "Gentile"  lawyers-,  cost  him  the  good 
will  of  extreme  "Anti-Mormons,"  and  possibly  prevented  his 


GOVERNOR    AXTELL. 


298      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


reappointment  as  Utah's  Executive.  Among  the  honors  be- 
stowed upon  the  Governor  was  the  giving  of  his  name  to 
Emery  County,  a  mark  of  ap- 
preciation on  the  part  of  the 
Legislature. 

"The   Ann   Eliza   Case."— 
Early  in  this  decade  the,polyg- 
amy  question  came  prominent- 
ly before  the  country,  through 
a  divorce  suit  instituted  in  the 
District    Court     at     Salt    Lake 
City.     The  parties  to  the  suit 
were  Ann  Eliza  Webb  Young, 
plaintiff,  and  Brigham  Young, 
defendant.      The  plaintiff,  who 
was  a  plural  wife  of  the  defend- 
ant, sued  not  only  for  divorce, 
but  for  alimony  pendente  lite, 
or  during  the  litigation.     "The 
Ann    Eliza    Case,"    as    it    was 
called,  "dragged  its  slow  length 
along"  until  February  25,  1875, 
when    the    defendant   was   or- 
dered by  the   Court  to  pay  to 
the  plaintiff  three  thousand  dol- 
lars— attorneys'   fees;   also  the   further   sum   of  five  hundred 
dollars  a  month,  for  her  support  and  the  education  of  her  chil- 
dren.    The  defendant  was  given  ten  days  in  which  to  pay  the 
fees,  and  twenty  days  in  which  to  pay  the  accumulated  alimony 
for  nineteen  months,  amounting  to  $9,500. 

An  appeal  was  prepared  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Ter- 
ritory, but  before  it  could  be  perfected  the  time  within  which 
the  fees  were  to  be  paid  had  expired.  No  payment  having 
been  made,  the  defendant  was  required  to  appear  and  show 
cause  why  he  should  not  be  punished  for  contempt.  Accord- 
ingly, on  the  llth  of  March,  President  Young  appeared  in 
Court,  and  by  his  attorney,  Mr.  P.  L.  Williams,  presented  a 
written  statement  to  the  effect  that  his  failure  to  comply  with 
the  order  of  the  25th  of  February  was  owing  wholly  to  a  de- 
sire to  obtain  the  benefit  of  his  appeal.  Disclaiming  all  inten- 
tion or  disposition  to  disregard  or  treat  contemptuously  any 
process  of  the  court,  he  asked  that  further  proceedings  in  exe- 
cution of  the  order  relative  to  fees  and  alimony  be  stayed  until 
the  appeal  had  been  determined. 

President  Young  Imprisoned. — Judge  McKean  held  that 
President  Young  was  guilty  of  contempt,  and  sentenced  him  to 
imprisonment  for  twenty-four  hours  in  the  Penitentiary.  He 


GOVERNOR  EMERY. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  299 

also  imposed  upon  him  a  light  fine — twenty-five  dollars.  The 
amount  of  the  fees  was  paid  by  the  President's  clerk,  James 
Jack,  as  soon  as  judgment  had  been  rendered.  The  defendant, 
after  receiving  sentence,  left  the  court  room  in  company  with 
Deputy  Marshal  A.  K.  Smith.  In  his  own  carriage  he  was 
taken  to  his  residence,  where  he  supplied  himself  with  bedding, 
clothing,  and  other  articles  that  he  might  need  while  in  prison, 
and  after  dining  was  conveyed  through  a  heavy  snow-storm  to 
the  Penitentiary.  Mayor  Wells,  Dr.  Seymour  B.  Young,  and 
William  A.  Rossiter,  went  with  the  President  and  remained  at 
the  Warden's  house  over  night.  Many  other  friends  drove  out 
to  the  Penitentiary  during  the  afternoon,  and  a  small  host, 
awaiting  the  hour  of  deliveran.ee,  found  lodgings  at  every  avail- 
able place  in  the  vicinity.  In  a  room  adjoining  the  Warden's 
house,  President  Young  passed  the  night  in  comparative  com- 
fort, receiving  from  his  guard  and  the  officers  of  the  prison 
every  consistent  courtesy.  Next  day,  between  twelve  and 
one  p.  m.,  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of  friends,  he  was  escort- 
ed back  to  his  home. 

Judge  McKean's  summary  action  in  this  affair  was  much 
criticised,  not  only  in  Utah,  but  far  beyond  her  borders.  The 
Court  was  also  censured  for  giving  to  Ann  Eliza  Webb  Young 
the  status  of  a  legal  wife.  The  New  York  Post  declared  that 
Judge  McKean,  "in  order  to  deplete  Brigham  Young's  bank 
account,  had  repudiated  his  own  principles"  and  might  "fairly 
be  hailed"  by  the  "Mormons"  as  "a  convert  to  polygamy."  The 
San  Francisco  Bulletin  presented  the  matter  in  this  form: 
"When  Judge  McKean  assumes  that  this  woman  is  the  wife  of 
Young,  makes  an  interlocutory  degree  granting  her  three  thou- 
sand dollars  to  maintain  a  suit  for  divorce,  when  there  never 
was  a  legal  marriage,  and  commits  Young  for  contempt  be- 
cause he  hesitates  long  enough  to  raise  the  question  of  the 
legality  of  the  order,  he  burns  some  strange  fire  on  the  altar  of 
justice."  "It  is  customary,"  said  the  Chicago  Times,  "to  hold 
judgments  in  abeyance  until  the  appeal  is  at  least  argued.  This 
summary  method  of  dealing  with  the  Prophet  looks  very  much 
like  persecution,  and  will  awaken  sympathy  for  him  instead 
of  aiding  the  cause  of  justice." 

Judge  McKean  Removed. — And  so  it  proved.  The  im- 
prisonment of  the  founder  of  Utah  for  a  slight  technical  of- 
fense, was  generally  looked  upon  as  an  unnecessary  and  a 
spiteful  proceeding.  It  was  "the  last  straw"  on  "the  camel's 
back"  of  Presidential  forbearance.  Judge  McKean's  radical 
course  had  at  length  convinced  the  Administration  at  Wash- 
ington that  a  change  in  the  Chief  Justiceship  of  this  Territory 
\vould  be  beneficial.  Five  days  after  the- issuance  of  the  order 
sending  Brigham  Young  to  prison.  Judge  McKean  was  re- 


300      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

moved  from  office.  He  continued  to  reside  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
where  he  practiced  law,  but  died  a  few  years  later  of  typhoid 
fever.  Among  the  "Gentiles,"  as  a  body,  and  particularly  the 
"Anti-Mormons,"  Judge  McKean  retained  his  popularity  to  the 
last.  His  friends  still  believe  he  was  an  upright  judge. 
Doubtless  he  meant  to  be.  But  the  record  of  his  public  acts 
is  before  the  reader ;  let  it  speak  for  itself.  The  rectitude  of  his 
private  life  is  unquestioned.  The  James  B.  McKean  Post,  a 
local  G.  A.  R.  organization,  helps  to  keep  alive  the  name  and 
memory  of  Utah's  former  Chief  Justice. 

Chief  Justice  Lowe. — Judge  McKean's  successor  was 
David  B.  Lowe,  of  Kansas.  When  the  divorce  suit  of  Young 
versus  Young  came  before  him,  Judge  Lowe  was  urged  to  im- 
prison the  defendant  for  failing  to  pay  the  accumulated  ali- 
mony. He  refused,  for  the  reason  that  a  valid  marriage  had 
neither  been  admitted  nor  proved.  A  few  weeks  later  Judge 
Lowe  resigned. 

Boreman  Reversed  by  White. — Associate  Justice  Bore- 
man,  while  sitting  temporarily  in  the  Third  District  Court,  also 
ruled  upon  "The  Ann  Eliza  case,"  ordering  that  Brigham 
Young  be  imprisoned  until  the  alimony  was  paid.  The  de- 
fendant was  too  ill  to  appear  in  court,  and  after  sentence  was 
guarded  in  his  own  home  by  two  deputy  marshals.  Judge 
Lowe's  successor,  Chief  Justice  Alexander  White,  after  a  hear- 
ing in  habeas  corpus,  decided  that  Boreman's  order,  readjudi- 
cating  an  issue  previously  disposed  of  in  the  same  court,  was 
unauthorized,  and  therefore  void.  This  decision  set  President 
Y'oung  at  liberty. 

End  of  the  Divorce  Suit. — White's  successor,  Chief  Justice 
Michael  Schaeffer,  reduced  the  alimony  to  one  hundred  dollars 
a  month,  and  ordered  that  it  be  paid.  In  execution  of  this 
order,  personal  property  was  sold  at  auction,  and  certain  rents 
v/ere  seized.  Finally  on  April  20,  1877,  Judge  Schaeffer,  hav- 
ing heard  the  whole  case,  decreed  the  polygamous  marriage 
between  Brigham  Young  and  Ann  Eliza  Webb  Young  void, 
and  all  orders  for  temporary  alimony  not  then  complied  with, 
were  revoked  and  annulled.  The  costs  were  assessed  against 
the  defendant. 

The  Reynolds  Case. — The  Latter-day  Saints,  as  already 
shown,  held  the  opinion  that  the  Act  of  Congress  inhibiting 
plural  marriage  was  unsound.  The  Federal  Constitution  ex- 
pressly declares :  "Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an 
establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  there- 
of." Celestial  Marriage,  including  plurality  of  wives,  was  "an 
establishment  of  religion"  to  those  who  looked  upon  it  as  a 
divine  revelation.  Consequently  the  Act  of  1862  was  regarded 
by  them  as  an  infringement  upon  religious  liberty,  an  invasion 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES. 


301 


of  the  most  sacred  right  guaranteed  by  the  fundamental  Law 
of  the  Land.  It  was  believed  that  the  highest  judicial  au- 
thority would  so  decide,  when  the  issue  came  fairly  and 
squarely  before  it.  So  confi- 
dent were  the  "Mormon"  lead- 
ers upon  this  point,  that  they 
more  than  once  expressed  the 
wish  that  a  test  case  might  be 
passed  upon  by  the  Court,  of 
Last  Resort.* 

In  the  autumn  of  1874  such 
a  case  arose.  The  defendant 
was  George  Reynolds,  private 
secretary  to  President  Brigham 
Young.  A  native  of  London, 
England,  aged  thirty-two,  he 
had  been  a  resident  of  Utah 
since  1865.  He  was  the  hus- 
band of  two  wives,  Mary  Ann 
Tuddenham  and  Amelia  Jane 
Schofield.  These  and  other 
facts  were  communicated  by 
him  to  the  Grand  Jury  of  the 
Third  Judicial  District,  and  he 
was  indicted  for  polygamy  or 
— as  the  law  styled  it — bigamy. 

First  Trial — Judgment  Re- 
versed.— There  were  two  trials 

of  the  Reynolds  case;  the  first  beginning  on  the  last  day  of 
March,  1875,  before  Associate  Justice  Emerson,  who  was  pre- 
siding in  the  Third  District  Court  during  the  interim  between 
the  removal  of  Chief  Justice  McKean  and  the  arrival  of  his 

*General  Babcock's  report  to  the  Government  (October,  1866) 
contained  these  sentences:  "The  Act  of  Congress  of  1862,  prohibiting 
polygamy,  has  never  been  enforced.  President  Young  told  me  he 
wanted  it  brought  before  the  courts,  and  would  place  no  obstacle  in 
the  way;  and  in  fact  would  help  to  bring  it  before  the  courts.  He 
said  he  believed  it  was  unconstitutional,  as  it  is  against  one  of  the 
foundations  of  their  religion.  *  *  *  The  attempt  to  enforce  this 
law  of  1862  has  been  a  failure,  and  I  think  it  will  be,  not  because  the 
people  oppose  the  courts,  but  the  fanatical  views  of  the  people  render 
such  failures  almost  certain.  The  law  makes  it  a  crime  to  take  more 
than  one  wife.  Before  the  offender  can  be  tried  he  must  be  indicted 
before  a  jury  of  the  land.  The  jury  of  necessity  is  entirely  or  mostly 
Mormons.  No  Mormon  can  see  a  crime  in  taking  two  or  three  wives 
in  accordance  with  God's  revelation  to  them.  The  result  is,  no  one 
is  indicted.  The  Gentiles  (Anti-Mormons)  in  Utah  thought  they 
would  have  a  Gentile  settlement  in  the  Territory,  in  the  Pahranagat 
mining  country,  where  a  Gentile  jury  could  be  found;  but  the  last 
Congress  cut  this  portion  of  Utah  off  and  annexed  it  to  Nevada.  So 
the  Mormons  are  even  stronger  than  before." 


GEORGE    REYNOLDS. 


302      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

successor.*  District  Attorney  Carey  prosecuted  the  case,  and 
the  law  firm  of  Sutherland,  Bates  and  Snow  appeared  for  the 
defendant.  The  jury  was  composed  of  seven  "Mormons"  and 
live  "Gentiles."  Among  the  witnesses  was  the  defendant's 
plural  wife,  Amelia  Reynolds,  who  admitted  that  she  was  mar- 
ried to  him  in  August,  1874.  The  jury  rendered  a  verdict  of 
guilty,  and  recommended  the  prisoner  to  the  mercy  of  the 
court.  A  fine  of  three  hundred  dollars,  and  imprisonment  for 
one  year  at  hard  labor,  was  the  sentence  pronounced.  The 
Supreme  Court  of  Utah  reversed  this  judgment,  upon  finding 
that  the  indictment  in  the  case  had  been  returned  by  a  grand 
jury  composed  of  twenty-three  men,  instead  of  the  fifteen  re- 
quired by  law. 

Second  Trial — Judgment  Affirmed.— Upon  a  new  indict- 
ment, Mr.  Reynolds  had  his  second  trial  in  December,  1875. 
Chief  Justice  White  then  presided,  and  Mr.  Carey  conducted 
the  prosecution ;  Williams  and  Young,  with  Sheeks  and  Raw- 
lins,  appearing  for  the  defense.  It  was  now  evident — though 
hopes  had  been  entertained  to  the  contrary — that  the  United 
States  Attorney  was  not  trying  the  case  merely  as  a  test  of  the 
constitutionality  of  the  law.  He  was  determined  not  only  to 
convict,  but  to  punish,  the  defendant.  Sensing  this  fact,  Mrs. 
Amelia  Reynolds  refused  to  appear  as  a  witness,  and  was  not 
found  when  the  officers  went  in  search  of  her.  The  Court, 
however,  permitted  the  prosecuting  attorney  to  call  to  the  wit- 
ness stand  lawyers  and  other  persons  who  had  been  in  attend- 
ance at  the  former  trial,  and  accepted  as  evidence  their  state- 
ments as  to  what  the  now  absent  witness  had  testified.  The 
defendant,  again  found  guilty  and  recommended  for  judicial 
clemency,  was  fined  five  hundred  dollars  and  sentenced  to  the 
Penitentiary  for  two  years  at  hard  labor.  The  Supreme  Court 
of  the  Territory  affirmed  the  decree,  and  the  case  was  then 
carried  to  Washington. 

President  Grant  in  Utah. — In  the  autumn  of  1875  Presi- 
dent Grant  visited  Utah — the  first  head  of  the  Nation  to  set 
foot  within  the  Territory.  From  Washington,  D.  C,  he  had 
come  west  as  far  as  Denver,  Colorado,  and  was  there  induced 
to  extend  his  trip  to  Salt  Lake  City.  The  President's  party 
included  his  wife,  Colonel  Fred  Grant  and  wife,  General  O.  E. 
Babcock,  Ex-Secretary  of  the  Navy  A.  E.  Borie,  and  Gov- 
ernor John  M.  Thayer,  of  Wyoming.  The  date  of  their  arrival 
was  the  third  of  October.  The  party  was  met  at  Peterson,  a 


*Judge  Emerson  was  regarded  as  a  sound  jurist,  and  had  an  ex- 
peditious way  of  dispatching  legal  business  that  was  very  gratifying  to 
attorneys,  litigants,  and  persons  awaiting  trial  in  his  court.  It  was  in 
response  to  a  special  request  from  leading  members  of  the  Utah  Bar, 
that  Governor  Axtell  had  given  him  this  temporary  assignment. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  303 

Union  Pacific  Railroad  station  in  Weber  Canyon,  by  Governor 
Emery  and  a  committee  of  ten — all  "Gentiles."  At  Ogden  a 
committee  representing  Salt  Lake  City  extended  the  municipal 
hospitalities  to  the  President  and  his  suite,  but  an  invitation 
from  the  Governor,  to  be  his  guests  during  their  stay,  had 
already  been  accepted. 

Among  those  who  welcomed  the  Chief  Magistrate  at  the 
function  City  was  President  P>righam  Young,  in  whose  party 
were  John  Taylor,  George  Q. 
Cannon,  Joseph  F.  Smith,  and 
other  prominent  "Mormons." 
The  meeting  between  the  two 
great  men  was  cordial ;  the 
"Mormon"  leader  remarking,  as 
he  took  the  proffered  hand  of 
the  First  Citizen  of  the  Repub- 
lic :  "President  Grant,  this  is 
the  first  time  I  have  ever  seen 
a  President  of  my  country." 
After  introductions  and  hand- 
shakes, all  proceeded  by  train 
to  the  capital. 

It  was  the  Sabbath  day, 
and  a  great  multitude,  includ- 
ing hosts  of  Sunday  School 
children,  -gave  the  honored 
guest  an  ovation  as  his  carriage 
drove  from  the  Utah  Central 
Depot  to  the  Walker  House  on 
Main  Street.  President  and  PRESIDENT  GRANT. 

Mrs.     Grant,     with     Governor 

Emery,  rode  behind  four  gray  horses  at  the  head  of  a  long  line 
of  vehicles.  Bowing  and  waving  his  hat  in  response  to  the 
salutes  of -the  populace,  the  President,  turning  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, inquired,  "Whose  children  are  these?"  "Mormon  chil- 
dren," replied  Emery.  The  Man  of  Appomattox  gazed  a  few 
moments  upon  the  scene  of  innocence  and  beauty,  and  then 
nnirmured,  "I  have  been  deceived." 

There  was  a  reception  at  the  hotel,  where  the  President 
\vas  introduced  by  the  Governor  from  the  balcony,  but  he  de- 
clined to  make  a  speech,  pleading  a  severe  cold.  Next  morn- 
ing he  vi-sited  the  Temple  grounds,  the  Tabernacle,  Fort  Doug- 
las, and  the  Penitentiary.  While  listening  to  the  Tabernacle 
Organ,  which  was  played  by  Joseph  J.  Daynes,  Mrs.  Grant, 
tears  filling  her  eyes,  turned  to  Ex-Delegate  Hooper  and 
said  with  deep  feeling:  "I  wish  I  could  do  something  for  these 
p UK!  Mormon  people!"  The  party  had  arrived  on  Sunday 


304      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

afternoon.  At  4  p.  m.  of  Monday  they  set  out  upon  their 
return  to  the  East. 

Much  of  President  Grant's  prejudice  against  Utah  seems 
to  have  melted  during  that  visit.  Never  again  did  he  manifest 
a  harsh  spirit  toward  the  Territory  and  its  people.  Governor 
Emery  stated  to  the  present  writer  that  Grant  advised  him, 
while  here,  to  "deal  fairly  between  man  and  man,  avoiding  all 
extremes."* 

A  Sensational  Period. — The  closing  part  of  this  decade 
was  remarkable  for  the  spirit  of  hostility  everywhere  prevail- 
ang  against  Utah  and  the  "Mormons."  The  trial  and  execu- 
tion of  John  D.  Lee,  the  chief  actor  in  the  Mountain  Meadows 
atrocity,  seemed  to  increase  rather  than  allay  the  ill  feeling, 
which  was  largely  the  result  of  an  unwarranted  newspaper  agi- 
tation, worked  up  by  unscrupulous  representatives  of  the  press. 
One  Jerome  B.  Stillson,  who  was  sent  to  Salt  Lake  City  in  1877 
as  a  special  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Herald,  made  that 
great  journal  ridiculous  by  the  absurd  Munchausenisms  with 
i  which  he  filled  its  columns.  He  first  reported  that  the  "Mor- 
mons" were  preparing  for  war,  and  urged  the  sending  of  an 
army  to  Utah.  General  Smith,  at  Fort  Douglas,  reported  that 
all  was  quiet,  and  General  Crook,  sent  out  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment, having  ascertained  the  falsity  of  the  Herald  telegrams, 
reported  thereon  in  such  forcible  language  that  Stillson  had  to 
change  his  tactics.  He  next  asserted  that  efforts  were  being- 
made  to  assassinate  him,  and  showed  an  incision  in  his  vest, 
with  an  indented  suspender  buckle  and  a  slight  abrasion  of 
the  skin,  as  proofs  of  an  alleged  attempt  to  stab  him  while  in 
his  room  at  the  Walker  House.  An  official  investigation  ex- 
posed the  fraud,  and  the  Herald  then  withdrew  its  mendacious 
correspondent. f 

U  The  Mountain  Meadows  Case. — Proceedings  in  the  case  of 
the  United  States  versus  John  D.  Lee  and  others,  impleaded 
for  the  dreadful  crime  at  Mountain  Meadows,  began  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1874,  when  Lee  was  arrested  at  Panguitch,  Utah,  by 

*Several  years  later  General  Grant,  returning  from  his  tour  around 
the  world,  passed  through  Ogden,  where  his  train  stopped  a  short 
time,  enabling  him  to  give  an  informal  public  reception  at  the  rear 
door  of  his  private  car. 

tThe  Suspender  Buckle  canard,  invented  by  Stillson,  paired  well 
with  an  earlier  story  originated  by  Dr.  John  P.  Taggart,  who  in  1870 
was  United  States  Assessor  of  Internal  Revenue  for  Utah.  Taggart, 
while  playing  with  a  pet  bull  dog,  was  bitten  by  the  animal,  and  after- 
wards exhibited  his  wounded  hand  and  torn  shirt  sleeve  as  evidence  of 
an  assault  by  "Mormon"  assassins.  Assessor  Taggart,  anticipating  the 
action  of  Collector  Hollister  in  the  Z.  C.  M.  I.  "Scrip  Case,"  made  a 
futile  attempt  to  compel  the  "Mormon"  Church  to  pay  an  enormous 
tax  on  its  tithing  fund,  consisting  of  voluntary  donations  by  its  mem- 
bers. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  303 

U.  S.  Deputy  Marshal  Stokes.  He  was  indicted  by  a  Grand 
Jury  of  ''Gentiles"  and  "Mormons" — probably  the  first  Grand 
Jury  empaneled  under  the  Poland  Law — and  was  tried  before 
Associate  Justice  Boreman,  at  Beaver.  The  first  trial — for 
there  were  two — began  and  ended  in  the  summer  of  1875  ;  the 
trial  jury  then  consisting  of  eight  "Mormons"  and  four  "Gen- 
tiles." The  attorneys  for  the  defense  were  William  W.  Bishop 
and  Enos  D.  Hoge;  Sutherland  and  Bates  also  figuring  on  that 
side.  United  States  Attorney  Carey  and  R.  N.  Baskin  con- 
ducted the  prosecution.  They  did  their  utmost  to  convict — 
not  John  D.  Lee,  but  the  "Mormon"  Church,  and  were  aided 
sympathetically  if  not  actually  by  the  Judge  upon  the  Bench. 
In  this  connection,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  fanat- 
icism and  ferocity  of  those  who  slew  the  unfortunate  emi- 
grants, are  fully  equalled  by  the  wolfish  vindictiveness  of  those 
who  have  sought  to  substitute  the  innocent  for  the  guilty,  and 
judicially  murder,  not  only  individuals,  but  the  good  name  of 
an  entire  community,  for  the  misdoings  of  a  few  wretches  who 
were  once  connected  with  it. 

Lee's  Rejected  Confession. — Lee  had  been  induced  to  \ 
make  a  confession,  which,  had  it  implicated  the  General 
Church  Authorities,  would  undoubtedly  have  resulted  in  his 
liberation,  or  in  a  greatly  modified  punishment.  But  the  de- 
sired implication  was  lacking,  and  the  confession  was  there- 
fore rejected  by  the  prosecuting  officers.  Hoping  to  prove 
more  than  Lee's  document  contained,  they  released  one  of  the 
most  guilty  of  his  confederates,  Phillip  Klingensmith,  an  apos- 
tate, and  used  him  as  a  witness  for  the  prosecution.  At  the 
same  time  the  affidavits  of  Brigham  Young  and  George  A. 
Smith  were  excluded  from  the  evidence.  Everything  was  done 
to  clothe  with  plausibility  the  skeleton  of  the  old  "Anti-Mor- 
mon" theory,  that  the  "Mormon"  Church  was  the  real  culprit 
in  the  case.  The  result  was  a  disagreement  of  the  jury, 
stood  nine  for  acquittal,  and  three  for  conviction. 

Tried  on  Its  Merits. — Before  any  further  proceedings  in 
the  case,  there  was  a  change  of  personnel  in  the  United  States 
Attorneyship.  Mr.  Carey  retired,  and  Sumner  Howard,  of 
Michigan,  was  appointed  to  that  position.  His  assistant  at  the 
second  Lee  trial  was  Presley  Denney.  In  his  opening  state- 
ment to  the  jury,  Mr.  How.ird  remarked  that  he  had  not  come 
to  try  Brigham  Young  and  the  "Mormon"  Church,  but  to  pro- 
ceed against  John  D.  Lee  for  his  personal  actions.  This  was 
the  first  time  that  it  had  been  proposed  to  try  the  case  on  its 
merits.  Mr.  Bishop  conducted  the  defense  as  before,  assisted 
by  Wells  Spicer  and  J.  C.  Foster.  The  following  affidavits — 
excluded  on  the  former  occasion — were  now  admitted  in  evi- 
dence. 

19 


30f>      \\TUT.\KVS  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


AFFIDAVIT  OF   BR1G11AM    YOUNG. 

Questions  to  be  propounded  to  Brigham  Young  on  his  examina- 
tion as  witness  in  the  case  of  John  1).  Lee  and  others,  on  trial  at 
Beaver  City,  Utah,  this  thirtieth  day  of  July,  1875,  and  the -said  an- 
swers of  Brigham  Young  to  the  interrogatories  hereto  appended  were 
reduced  to  writing,  and  were  given  after  the  said  Brigham  Young  had 
been  duly  sworn  to  testify  to  the  truth  in  the  above  entitled  cause, 
and  are  as  follow.s: 

First. — State  your  age,  and  the  present  condition  of  your  health, 
and  whether  in  your  present  condition  you  could  travel  to  attend  in 
person  at  Beaver,  the  court  now  sitting  there?  If  not,  state  why. 

Answer. — To  the  first  interrogatory  he  says:  I  am  in  my  seventy- 
fifth  year.  It  would  be  a  great  risk,  both  to  my  health  and  life,  for 
me  to  travel  to  Beaver  at  this  present  time.  I  am  and  have  been  for 
some  time,  an  invalid. 

Second. — What  offices,  either  ecclesiastical,  civil  or  military,  did 
you  hold  in  the  year  1857? 

Answer. — I  was  the  Governor  of  this  Territory,  and  ex-officio 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  and  the  President  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  during  the  year  1857. 

Third. — State  the  condition  of  affairs  between  the  Territory  of 
Utah  and  the  Federal  Government  in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1857? 

Answer.- — In  May  or  June,  1857,  the  United  States  mails  for  Utah 
were  stopped  by  the  Government,  and  all  communication  by  mail 
was  cut  off;  an  army  of  the  United  States  was  en  route  for  Utah  with 
the  ostensible  design  of  destroying  the  Latter-day  Saints,  according 
to  the  reports  that  reached  us  from  the  East. 

Fourth. — Were  there  any  United  States  Judges  here  during  the 
summer  and  fall  of  1857? 

Answer. — To  the  best  of  my  recollection  there  was  no  United 
States  Judge  here  in  the  latter  part  of  1857. 

Fifth. — State  what  you  know  about  trains  of  emigrants  passing 
through  the  Territory  to  the  West,  and  particularly  about  a  company 
from  Arkansas,  en  route  to  California,  passing  through  this  city  in 
the  summer  or  fall  of  1857? 

Answer. — As  usual,  emigrant  trains  were  passing  through  our  Ter- 
ritory for  the  West.  I  heard  it  rumored  that  a  company  from  Arkan- 
sas, en  route  to  California,  had  passed  through  the  city. 

Sixth. — Was  this  Arkansas  company  of  emigrants  ordered  away 
from  Salt  Lake  City  by  yourself  or  anyone  in  authority  under  you? 

Answer.— No,  not  that  I  know  of.  I  never  heard  of  any  such 
thing,  and  certainly  no  such  order  was  given  by  the  Acting-Governor.* 

Seventh. — Was  any  counsel  or  instruction  given  by  any  person  to 
the  citizens  of  Utah  not  to  sell  grain,  or  trade  with  the  emigrant  trains 
passing  through  Utah  at  that  time?  If  so,  what  were  those  instruc- 
tions and  that  counsel? 

Answer. — Yes,  counsel  and  advice  was  given  to  the  citizens  npt 
to  sell  grain  to  the  emigrants  to  feed  their  stock,  but  let  them  have 
sufficient  for  themselves  if  they  were  out.  The  simple  reason  for  this 
was  that  for  several  years  our  crops  had  been  short,  and  the  prospect 
was  at  that  time  that  we  might  have  trouble  with  the  United  States 
army,  then  en  route  for  this  place;  and  we  wanted  to  preserve  the 


*Governor  Young  refers  to  himself  as  "Acting  Governor."  His 
successor,  Governor  Gumming,  appointed  in  July,  1857,  did  not  arrive 
in  Utah  until  November  of  that  vear. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  307 

grain  for  food.  The  citizens  of  the  Territory  were  counseled  not  to 
feed  grain  even  to  their  own  stock.  No  person  was  ever  punished  or 
called  in  question  for  furnishing  supplies  to  the  emigrants,  within  my 
knowledge. 

Eighth. — When  did  you  first  hear  of  the  attack  and  destruction  of 
the  Arkansas  company  at  Mountain  Meadows,  in  September,  1857?  ' 

Answer. — I  did 'not  learn  anything  of  the  attack  or  destruction  of 
the  Arkansas  company  until  sometime  after  it  had  occurred, — then 
only  by  a  floating  rumor. 

Ninth. — Did  John  D.  Lee  report  to  you  at  any  time  after  this 
massacre  what  had  been  done  at  that  massacre,  and  if  so,  what  did 
you  reply  to  him  in  reference  thereto? 

Answer. — Within  some  two  or  three  months  after  the  massacre 
he  called  at  my  office  and  had  much  to  say  in  regard  to  the  Indians, 
their  being  stirred  up  to  anger  and  threatening  the  settlements  of  the 
whites,  and  then  commenced  giving  an  account  of  the  massacre.  1 
told  him  to  stop,  as  from  what  I  had  already  learned  by  rumor  I  did 
not  wish  my  feelings  harrowed  up  with  a  recital  of  the  details. 

Tenth. — Did  Philip  Klingensmith  call  at  your  office  with  John  D. 
Lee  at  the  time  of  Lee  making  his  report,  and  did  you  at  that  time 
order  Smith  to  turn  over  the  stock  to  Lee,  and  order  them  not  to  tajk 
about  the  massacre? 

Answer. — No,  he  did  not  call  with  John  D.  Lee,  and  I  have  no 
recollection  of  his  ever  speaking  to  me  or  I  to  him  concerning  the 
massacre,  or  anything  pertaining  to  the  property. 

Eleventh. — Did  you  ever  give  any  directions  concerning  the  prop- 
erty taken  from  the  emigrants  at  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre,  or 
know  anything  as  to  its  disposition? 

Answer. — No.  I  never  gave  any  directions  concerning  the  prop- 
erty taken  from  the  emigrants  at  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre, 
nor  did  I  know  anything  of  that  property  or  its  disposal;  and  I  do  not 
to  this  day,  except  from  public  rumor. 

Twelfth. — Why  did  you  not,  as  Governor  of  Utah  Territory,  in- 
stitute proceedings  forthwith  to  investigate  that  massacre  and  bring 
the  guilty  authors  to  justice? 

Answer. — Because  another  Governor  had  been  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  was  then  on  the  way  here  to  take 
my  place,  and  I  did  not  know  how  soon  he  might  arrive,  and  because 
the  United  States  judges  were  not  in  the  Territory.  Soon  after  Gov- 
ernor dimming  arrived,  I  asked  him  to  take  Judge  Cradlebaugh,  who 
belonged  to  the  southern  district,  with  him,  and  I  would  accompany 
them  with  sufficient  aid  to  investigate  the  matter  and  bring  the  offen- 
ders to  justice. 

Thirteenth. — Did  you,  about  the  tenth  of  September,  1857,  receive 
a  communication  from  Isaac  C.  Haight,  or  any  other  person  of  Cedar 
City,  concerning  a  company  of  emigrants  called  the  Arkansas  com- 
pany? 

Answer. — I  did  receive  a  communication  from  Isaac  C.  Haight,  or 
John  D.  Lee,  who  was  then  a  farmer  for  the  Indians. 

Fourteenth. — Have   you   that   communication? 

Answer. — I  have  not.  I  have  made  diligent  search  for  it,  bu\  • 
cannot  find  it.* 

Fifteenth. — Did  you  answer  that  communication? 

Answer. — I  did,  to  Isaac  C.  Haight,  who  was  then  Acting-Presi- 
dent at  Cedar  City. 

Sixteenth. — Will   you  state  the  substance  of  your  letter  to'  him? 


*The    letter    was    afterwards    found    and    published,    as    stated    in 
Chapter  XITI  of  this  History,  p.  140,  Note. 


308      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Answer. — Yes.  It  was  to  let  this  company  of  emigrants,  and  all 
companies  of  emigrants,  pass  through  the  country  unmolested,  and  to 
allay  the  angry  feelings  of  the  Indians  as  much  as  possible. 

(Signed)  BRIGHAM  YOUNG. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me,  this  30th  day  of  July,  A.  D. 
1875.  WILLIAM  CLAYTON,  Notary  Public. 

AFFIDAVIT  OF  GEORGE  A.  SMITH. 

George  A.  Smith  having  been  first  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says: 
That  he  is  aged  fifty-eight  years;  that  he  is  now  and  has  been  for 
several  months  suffering  from  a  severe  and  dangerous  illness  of  the 
head  and  lungs,  and  that  to  attend  the  court  at  Beaver,  in  the  present 
condition  of  his  health,  would  in  all  probability  end  his  life.  Deponent 
further  saith  that  he  had  no  military  command  during  the  year  1857, 
nor  any  other  official  position  except  that  of  one  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

Deponent  further  saith  that  he  never,  in  the  year  1857,  at  Parowan 
or  elsewhere,  attended  a  council  where  William  H.  Dame,  Isaac  C. 
Ilaight  or  others  were  present  to  discuss  any  measures  for  attacking 
or  in  any  manner  injuring  an  emigrant  train  from  Arkansas  or  any 
other  place,  which  is  alleged  to  have  been  destroyed  at  Mountain 
Meadows  in  September,  1857.  Deponent  further  saith  that  he  never 
heard  or  knew  anything  of  a  train  of  emigrants,  which,  he  learned 
afterwards  by  rumor,  was  from  Arkansas,  until  he  met  said  emigrant 
train  at  Corn  Creek  on  his  way  north  to  Salt  Lake  City,  on  or  about 
the  25th  day  of  August,  1857.  Deponent  further  saith  that  he  en- 
camped with  Jacob  Hamblin,  Philo  T.  Farnsworth,  Silas  S.  Smith  and 
Elisha  Hoops,  and  there  for  the  first  time  he  learned  of  the  existence 
of  said  emigrant  train  and  their  intended  journey  to  California.  Depo- 
nent further  saith  that,  having  been  absent  from  the  Territory  for  a 
year  previous,  he  returned  in  the  summer  of  1857  and  went  south  to 
visit  his  family  at  Parowan,  and  to  look  after  some  property  he  had 
there,  and  also  visit  his  friends  and  for  no  other  purpose;  and  that  on 
leaving  Salt  Lake  City  he  had  no  knowledge  whatever  of  the  existence 
of  said  emigrant  train,  nor  did  he  acquire  any  until  as  before  stated. 

Deponent  further  saith  that,  as  an  Elder  in  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  he  preached  several  times  on  his  way 
south,  and  also  on  his  return,  and  tried  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of 
the  people  the  necessity  of  great  care  as  to  their  grain  crops,  as  all 
crops  had  been  short  for  several  years  previous  to  1857,  and  many  of 
the  people  vere  reduced  to  actual  want,  and  were  suffering  for  the  ne- 
cessaries of  life.  Deponent  further  saith  that  he  advised  the  people  to 
furnish  all  emigrant  companies  passing  through  the  Territory  with 
what  they  might  actually  need  for  bread  stuff,  for  the  support  of  them- 
selves and  families  while  passing  through  the  Territory,  and  also  ad- 
vised the  people  not  to  feed  their  grain  to  their  own  stock,  nor  to  sell 
it  to  the  emigrants  for  that  purpose. 

Deponent  further  saith  that  he  never  heard  or  knew  of  any 
attack  upon  the  said  emigrant  train  until  some  time  after  his 
return  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  that  while  near  Fort  Bridger  I  now  in 
Wyoming]  he  heard  for  the  first  time  that  the  Indians  had  massacred 
an  emigrant  company  at  Mountain  Meadows. 

Deponent  further  saith  that  he  never,  at  any  time,  either  before  or 
after  that  massacre,  was  accessory  thereto;  that  he  never,  directly  or 
indirectly,  aided,  abetted  or  assisted  in  its  perpetration,  or  had  any 
knowledge  thereof,  except  by  hearsay;  that  he  never  knew  anything  of 
the  distribution  of  the  property  taken  there,  except  by  hearsay  as 
aforesaid. 


SUNDRY  EVENTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  309 

Deponent  further  saith  that  all  charges  and  statements  as  pertain- 
ing to  him,  contrary  to  the  foregoing,  are  false  and  untrue. 

(Signed)  GEORGE  A.  SMITH. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  30th  day  of  July,  A.D.  1875. 

WILLIAM  CLAYTON,  Notary  Public. 

Other  Testimony. — Then  followed  other  documentary  evi- 
dence, and  the  examination  of  witnesses,  namely,  Daniel  H. 
Wells,  Laban  Morrill,  James  H.  Haslam,  Joel  White,  Samuel 
Knight,  Samuel  McMurdy,  Nephi  Johnson,  and  Jacob  Ham- 
blin.  General  Wells,  who  resided  at  Salt  Lake  City,  testified 
that  John  D.  Lee,  in  1857,  was  a  farmer  among  the  Indians, 
and  had  been  a  Major  in  the  Utah  Militia.  The  other  wit- 
nesses were  all  residents  of  Southern  Utah  at  the  time  of  the 
tragedy.  Their  evidence  substantiated  the  facts  set  forth  in 
Chapter  Thirteen  of  this  History. 

The  Jury  and  the  Verdict. — The  jurors  were  all  "Mor- 
mons," namely :  William  Greenwood,  John  E.  Page,  A.  M. 
Farnsworth,  Stephen  S.  Barton,  Valentine  Carson,  Alfred  Ran- 
dall, James  G.  Montague,  A.  S.  Goodwin,  Ira  B.  Elmer,  An- 
drew A.  Correy,  Charles  Adams,  and  Walter  Granger.  These 
men,  having  heard  the  testimony  and  deliberated  four  hours 
thereon,  brought  in  a  verdict  of  murder  in  the  first  degree.  The 
date  of  the  verdict  was  September  20,  1876. 

Lee  Sentenced. — Lee  was  sentenced  to  be  shot ;  he  having 
chosen  that  method  of  execution.  Judge  Boreman,  while  pro- 
nouncing the  sentence,  mad.e  a  fanatical  attack  upon  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  and  its  leading  authorities,  virtually  accusing 
them  of  the  crime  for  which  Lee  was  about  to  suffer.  The 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory  affirmed  the  judgment  of 
the  District  Court.  The  case  against  the  principal  defendant 
having  been 'disposed  of,  the  other  indictments  were  dismissed. 
Lee,  pending  his  execution,  was  kept  at  Fort  Cameron,  a  mil- 
itary post  near  Beaver.* 

*Fort  Cameron  had  been  established  by  order  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, pursuant  to  suggestions  from  Judge  Hawley  and  Governor 
Woods,  who  represented  that  "without  the  presence  of  the  military 
in  that  remote  portion  of  the  Territory,"  it  would  "be  utterly  impossi- 
ble to  enforce  the  law."  Secretary  Belnap  endorsed  the  suggestion, 
and  in  May,  1872,  a  small  detachment  of  troops  camped  upon  the  foot- 
hills at  the  mouth  of  a  canyon  about  two  and  a  half  miles  east  of 
Beaver.  There,  in  September,  1873,  the  construction  of  barracks  began, 
and  in  the  following  July  the  post  was  named  Fort  Cameron,  after  a 
veteran  officer  of  the  United  States  Army.  The  fact  that  Fort  Cam 
eron  was  a  superfluous  as  well  as  an  expensive  institution  soon  be- 
came apparent.  John  D.  Lee  was  the  only  important  prisoner  ever 
kept  there.  In  a  few  years  the  post  was  abandoned;  its  buildings  pass- 
ing into  the  possession  of  leading  citizens,  who  purchased  them  from 
the  Government  and  devoted  them  to  school  purposes.  The  Mitrdock 
Academy  is  now  conducted  there. 


.310      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

A  Dramatic  Execution. — The  responsibility  of  carrying, 
out  the  sentence  of  the  Court  devolved  upon  the  United  States' 
Marshal,  Colonel  William  Nelson,  who  had  held  that  office 
since  March,  1876.  Nelson  followed  Maxwell,  who  had  been 
removed  early  in  February;  financial  crookedness  in  the  Mar- 
shal's office  causing  the  change.*  Nelson,  like  Maxwell,  was  a 
Civil  War  veteran.  Prior  to  coming  West,  he  had  been  the 
editor  of  a  Republican  paper  at  La  Crosse,  Wisconsin.  He 
succeeded  not  only  to  Maxwell's  position,  but  to  the  bitter  en- 
mity felt  by  the  latter  toward  the  people  among  whom  he 
had  made  his  home.  Nelson  endeavored  to  secure  from  Lee, 
after  his  conviction,  a  confession  implicating  the  "Mormon" 
leaders  in  the  Mountain  Meadows  Massacre.  Every  effort  to 
that  end  having  failed,  there  being  nothing  of  the  kind  to  con- 
fess, it  but  remained  to  put  a  dramatic  denouement  to  the  pro- 
ceedings, and  create  as  much  sensation  as  possible  out  of  the 
act  of  execution.  This  is  why  Lee  expiated  his  crime  on  the 
scene  of  its  occurrence — Mountain  Meadows — where  he  was 
shot  to  death  March  23,  1877. 

More  "Confessions." — Several  books,  each  purporting  to 
be  "The  Confession  of  John  D.  Lee,"  made  their  appearance 
just  as  soon  as  it  was  safe  to  publish  them,  without  fear  of 
contradiction  from  Lee  himself.  Death  had  no  sooner  sealed 
his  lips,  than  these  so-called  "confessions,"  like  mushrooms, 
started  up  on  every  hand.  Most  of  them  are  manifest  frauds, 
made — like  the  razors  that  wouldn't  shave — "to  sell."  The  one 
nearest  authentic,  was  published  by  Lee's  lawyer,  Mr.  Bishop; 
but  even  that  is  not  above  suspicion. 

Dr.  Clinton's  Imprisonment. — Continuing  the  quest  after 
acceptable  "confessions,"  the  United  States  Marshal,  in  July, 
1877,  took  into  custody  Dr.  Jeter  Clinton,  for  many  years  Po- 
lice Justice  of  Salt  Lake  City,  but  at  the  time  of  his  arrest  pro- 
prietor of  Clinton's  Hotel,  at  Lake  Point.  Rumor  had  charged 
the  Doctor  with  the  killing  of  John  Banks,  one  of  the  "Mor- 
risite"  leaders,  wounded  in  the  melee  following  the  surrender 


*Thcre  was  no  imputation  of  dishonesty  as  to  General  Maxwell 
himself.  The  accusations  were  against  certain  persons  employed  by 
him,  who  had  taken  advantage  of  his  loose  method  of  conducting  bus- 
iness. The  exposure  was  brought  about  through  the  efforts  of  Deputy 
Marshals  Jerome  B.  Cross  and  Arthur  Pratt.  The  Grand  Jury,  after 
a  searching  investigation,  reported  that  the  Marshal's  books,  by  false 
entries,  represented  unpaid  accounts  as  settled,  and  that  out  of  $13,200 
allowed  for  the  expenses  of  the  court  at  Beaver,  only  about  eight 
thousand  dollars  had  been  accounted  for. 

Congress,  that  year,  diverted  to  the  use  of  the  Federal  Courts  the 
amount   necessary  t<>  pay  the  expenses  of  the  Utah   Legislature;   that 
body  having  failed  to  provide  the  usual   funds.     Subsequently  the  Leg 
islafure    made   the    necessary   provision,   but    its    members   were    nevfcf 
compensated  by  Congress  for  their  labors  during  that  session. 


SUNDRY  KVKNTS  IN  THE  SEVENTIES. 


311 


of  Kington  Fort.  It  had  been  alleged  that  Banks  was  not 
fatally  wounded  at  that  time,  but  was  subsequently  "put  out 
of  the  way."  Dr.  Clinton  was  kept  a  prisoner  for  several 
weeks,  during  which  time  repeated  efforts  were  made  to  in- 
duce him  to  give  information  implicating  persons  "higher  in 
authority."  But  no  such  information  was  elicited,  and  nothing 
came  of  the  attempt  to  fasten  guilt  upon  the  Ex-Alderman.  A 
suit  for  false  imprisonment  and  maltreatment  followed  his  lib- 
eration, but  the  Court — Chief  Justice  Schaeffer— decided  at  the 
hearing  that  the  Marshal  had  not  exceeded  his  duty  in  his 
treatment  of  the  prisoner. 

Death  of  Brigham  Young. — On  Wednesday,  August  29, 
1877,  President  Brigham  Young  died  at  his  residence,  the  Lion 
House,  in  Salt  Lake  City.  He  was  in  his  seventy-seventh 
year,  having  been  born  June  1st,  1801,  at  Whitingham,  Wind- 
ham  County,  Vermont.  The  funeral  of  the  departed  leader 


PRESIDENT    BKir.HAM   YOl'XC 


312      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

was  held  in  the  Tabernacle  on  Sunday,  September  2nd;  the  in- 
terment taking  place  in  the  Young  Family  Cemetery,  on  First 
Avenue.  President  Young  was  widely  and  deeply  mourned. 
As  much  as  any  man  may  be  said  to  have  created  a  common- 
wealth, he  had  created  Utah ;  and  the  people  who  had  loved 
him  in  life  lamented  him  in  death.* 

Final  Labors  of  Utah's  Founder. — President  Young's  la- 
bors during  the  closing  years  of  his  life  included  an  earnest 
effort  to  establish  a  social  system  approximating  to  one  intro- 
duced by  his  predecessor,  President  Joseph  Smith,  in  Ohio 
and  in  Missouri.  The  wonderful  success  of  Co-operation  en- 
couraged the  belief  that  "The  United  Order"  might  be  perma- 
nently established.  "Our  object,"  said  President  Young,  "is 
to  labor  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole ;  to  retrench  in  our  expen- 
ditures ;  to  be  prudent  and  economical ;  to  study  well  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  community,  and  pass  by  its  many  useless 
wants;  to  secure  life,  health,  wealth  and  union."  In  May,  1874, 
a  general  organization  was  effected,  with  Brigham  Young  as 
"President  of  the  United  Order  in  all  the  World."  Branch 
organizations  were  formed  throughout  the  Church.  This  effort 
to  realize  an  ideal  still  cherished  by  the  "Mormon"  people  was 
not  destined  to  achieve  lasting  success;  though  in  some  places 
the  Order,  or  certain  phases  of  it,  continued  for  a  number  of 
years — notably  at  Orderville,  Kane  County,  and  at  Kingston, 
Piute  County,  Utah ;  also  at  Sunset,  Arizona,  one  of  several 
settlements  founded  along  the  Little  Colorado  River,  by  Lot 
Smith  and  a  company  of  colonizers,  sent  from  Utah  in  1876. 

A  movement  more  fruitful  of  results  was  undertaken  in 
the  autumn  of  that  year,  by  the  veteran  educator,  Dr.  Karl  G. 
Maeser,  acting  under  instructions  from  President  Young.  Dr. 
Maeser,  assisted  by  A.  O.  Smoot  and  others,  founded  at  Provo 
the  Brigham  Young  Academy  (since  University),  now  the 
crowning  institution  of  a  great  Church  school  system,  compris- 
ing the  Brigham  Young  College  at  Logan,  the  Latter-day  Saints' 
University  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  many  Stake  Academies  and 
other  schools  scattered  through  the  Rocky  Mountain  region. 
The  purpose  of  these  institutions  is  religious  as  well  as  secular 
education.  Some  of  them  were  endowed  by  President  Young, 
and  all  are  maintained  by  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints. 

In  1875-76  arose  the  Mutual  Improvement  Associations, 
flourishing  at  the  present  time  among  the  young  men  and 
women  of  the  Church,  and  owing  their  initiative  to  the  great 

*Among  the  prominent  Churchmen  who  had  preceded  him  into 
the  spirit  world  was  his  First  Counselor,  President  Heber  C.  Kimnall. 
whose  dcn'h  occurred  June  22,  1868.  George  A.  Smith,  who  succeeded 
licber  C.  Kimbnll  in  the  First  Presidency,  died  September  1,  1875. 


SUNDRY  EVENT'S  IN  THE  SEVENTIES.  313 

founder  and  organizer.  A  forerunner  of  the  Young  Ladies' 
was  the  Retrenchment  Association,  formed  in  1869-1870,  un- 
der President  Young's  personal  direction.  It  inculcated  econ- 
omy of  labor  and  reform  in  dress,  with  a  view  to  lightening 
the  duties  of  the  over-worked  housewife,  and  giving  to  moth- 
ers and  daughters  more  time  for  mental  and  spiritual  cul- 
ture. The  Retrenchment  Association  supplemented  in  the  field 
of  woman's  work  the  Relief  Society,  a  benevolent  organization 
dating  from  the  days  of  Nauvoo. 

On  New  Year's  Day,  1877,  President  Young  dedicated  part 
of  the  St.  George  Temple,  then  near  completion,  and  during 
the  following  April  the  General  Conference  of  the  Church 
was  held  within  that  edifice,  the  first  of  its  kind  erected  in 
Utah.  The  remaining  months  of  the  President's  life  were  de- 
voted to  a  more  thorough  organization  of  the  Stakes  of  Zion. 
At  Brigham  City,  on  Sunday,  August  19th,  he  made  his  last 
public  address.  Six  days  before  his  death  he  attended  a 


ST.   GEORGE  TEMPLE. 

meeting  of  Bishops  in  the  Council  House,  where  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  superintend  the  removal  of  the  Old  Taber- 
nacle and  the  erection  in  its  place  of  the  Assembly  Hall.  Re- 
turning home,  he  bade  those  about  him  good  night,  and  retired, 
remarking  as  he  went :  "I  think  I  shall  now  go  and  take  my 
rest."  That  night  his  final  illness  seized  him — cholera  morbus, 
or,  as  some  have  since  believed,  appendicitis. 

"Mormonism"     Survives. — Predictions     had     been     plen- 
tiful that  "Mormonism"  would  not  survive  the  loss  of  its  lead- 


314      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ing  spirit.  "When  falls  the  Colosseum,  Rome  shall  fall,"  was 
a  proverb  widely  paraphrased  with  reference  to  the  death  of 
Brigham  Young  and  the  expected  dissolution  of  the  Church 
over  which  he  had  so  long  presided.  Faction  and  schism, 
it  was  thought,  would  prove  fatal  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  organ- 
ization. All  these  suppositions  were  groundless.  There  were 
no  rival  claimants  to  the  Presidency,  and  no  differences  of 
opinion  among  priesthood  or  people  as  to  who  should  preside 
over  them.  With  the  death  of  Joseph  Smith,  and  the  conse- 
quent disorganization  of  the  First  Presidency  at  that  time,  Brig- 
ham  Young,  as  president  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  the  council 
next  in  authority,  had  become  the  head  of  the  Church  by  vir- 
tue of  seniority  among  his  fellows.  That  precedent  was  now 
followed. 

President  John  Taylor. — John  Taylor,  who  succeeded 
Brigham  Young,  was  an  Englishman,  but  had  spent  most  of 
his  life  upon  American  soil.  He  had  been  intimate  with  Joseph 
Smith  in  Ohio,  Missouri,  and  Illinois,  sharing  with  the  Prophet 
his  imprisonment  in  Carthage  Jail,  and  receiving  in  his  body 
four  of  the  bullets  fired  by  the  mob  at  the  time  his  leader  was 
slain.  President  Taylor,  though  now  in  his  sixty-ninth  year, 
was  still  a  strong  man,  with  a  brave  heart  and  an  iron  will, 
ready  to  grapple  with  the  responsibilities  confronting  him. 


BRIGHAM   YOUNG'S   GRAVE 

The   casket   containing   his   remains   rests   in   a  vault  beneath    a   granite   slab   inside   the 

iron  paling. 


XXIV. 

DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES. 

1878-1881. 

Clearing  the  Docket. — The  trial  and  execution  of  John  D. 
Lee  was  followed  by  judicial  action  in  a  number  of  other  old- 
time  criminal  cases,  some  of  them  based  upon  dead  and  all  but 
forgotten  issues.  The  prosecuting  officers  were  determined  to 
clear  the  docket  of  these  ancient  entries,  and  the  parties  chiefly 
concerned  were  not  sorry  that  the  matters  involved  were  about 
to  be  finally  adjudicated.* 

The  Aiken  Case. — The  next  case  that  came  to  trial  was 
one  based  upon  facts  that  may  be  stated  briefly  as  follows. 
During  the  year  1857,  in  the  midst  of  the  Echo  Canyon  War 
trouble,  a  party  of  five  or  six  men,  including  John  and  Thomas 
Aiken,  entered  Utah  from  the  West.  Having  no  passports, 
and  the  Territory  then  being  under  martial  law,  they  were 
arrested  in  Box  Elder  County  and  taken  to  Ogden.  Set  at 
liberty,  they  traveled  southward,  in  company  with  guides  em- 
ployed by  themselves,  and  in  due  time  reached  Nephi  and  pro- 
ceeded some  distance  beyond.  The  day  after  their  departure 
from  Nephi,  John  Aiken  and  a  companion  returned  wounded 
to  that  place,  and  after  receiving  medical  attention,  started 
for  Salt  Lake  City.  Then  came  a  report  that  the  party  had 
been  killed  by  their  guides,  presumably  for  plunder.  Among 
those  said  to  have  been  included  in  the  escort  were  Sylvanus 
Collett  and  Porter  Rockwell,  and  at  the  expiration  of  twenty 

*The  Mountain  Meadows  case  was  still  pending,  when  one  of 
these  cases  was  disposed  of  in  the  District  Court  at  Salt  Lake  City. 
The  defendant  was  Colonel  Thomas  E.  Ricks,  a  former  Sheriff  of 
Cache  County.  He  was  charged  with  shooting  a  horse  thief,  one 
David  Skeene,  on  the  night  of  July  2nd,  1860;  Skeene  being  then  in 
the  custody  of  the  Sheriff  at  Logan.  It  was  alleged  that  the  shooting 
took  place  while  the  prisoner  was  asleep  in  an  old  log  school  house 
serving  as  a  jail.  According  to  the  Sheriff's  account,  Skeene  ran 
towards  him,  as  if  to  snatch  his  revolver,  and  he  shot  him  in  self 
defense.  At  an  inquest  held  one  day  after  the  killing,  William  Cham- 
bers, one  of  the  guards,  corroborated  this  statement,  and  his  testimony, 
with  that  of  others,  brought  from  the  coroner's  jury  a  verdict  that 
Skeene  came  to  his  death  while  attempting  to  escape  from  the  officers. 
But  Chambers  was  now  in  a  mood  to  testify  that  he  had  perjured 
himself  on  the  former  occasion,  and  that  the  shooting  of  the  prisoner 
was  not  justifiable.  He  was  the  main  witness  for  the  prosecution. 
The  case  was  tried  before  Associate  Justice  Emerson,  on  the  18th  of 
March,  1875.  Carey  and  Baskin  were  the  prosecutors;  and  Sutherland, 
Bates  and  Snow  the  counsel  for  the  defense.  Colonel  Ricks  was 
acquitted. 


316      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

years  these  men  were  indicted  for  the  crime.  Several  months 
before  the  time  of  the  trial  Rockwell  died  at  Salt  Lake  City. 

Collett  was  tried  at  Prove,  before  Associate  Justice  Emer- 
son, in  October,  1878.  The  case  was  prosecuted  by  United 
States  Attorney  Phillip  T.  Van  Zile,  formerly  of  Michigan, 
who  had  succeeded  Sumner  Howard  in  the  previous  March. 
The  defendant,  by  his  attorneys,  Tilford  and  Hagan,  was  able 
to  prove  an  alibi,  showing  that  when  the  alleged  murder  was 
committed  he  was  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  scene  of  the 
tragedy.  An  acquittal  followed. 

General  Burton's  Vindication. — The  most  important  trial 
in  this  series  of  prosecutions  was  that  of  General  Robert  T. 
Burton,  the  queller  of  the  "Morrisite"  rebellion.  Proceedings 
against  him  had  begun  in  September,  1870,  when  he  was  in- 
dicted for  one  of  the  homicides  connected  with  that  unfortu- 
nate affair.  Before  further  steps  could  be  taken,  however,  the 
Englebrecht  decision  rendered  the  process  null  and  void.  Sev- 
eral years  later,  under  another  indictment,  the  defendant  was 
arrested  and  admitted  to  bail  in  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars.. 

General  Burton  was  tried  in  the  District  Court  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  the  same  court  which  had  issued  the  mandate,  for 
the  carrying  out  of  which  he  was  now  charged  with  murder— 
the  killing  of  Mrs.  Bella  Bowman,  one  of  the  "Morrisite" 
women  shot  at  the  capture  of  Kington  Fort.  Chief  Justice 
Schaeffer  presided  at  the  trial,  which  began  February  20,  1879, 
in  the  presence  of  a  jury  composed  equally  of  "Mormons"  and 
"Gentiles."  The  prosecution  was  conducted  by  U.  S.  Attorney 
Van  Zile,  assisted  by  James  H.  Beatty ;  and  the  defendant's 
counsel  were  Tilford  and  Hagan,  J.  G.  Sutherland,  P.  L.  Wil- 
liams, and  W.  N.  Dusenberry. 

Mr.  Beatty,  in  the  opening  statement  to  the  jury,  declared 
that  General  Burton  went  to  Kington  Fort  at  the  head  of  "a 
large  band  of  militia,"  but  failed  to  mention  that  he  went  as 
an  officer  of  the  law,  acting  under  judicial  orders;  an  omission 
supplied  by  Judge  Sutherland  when  it  came  his  turn  to  address 
the  jury.  The  prosecution  endeavored  to  prove  that  the  de- 
fendant shot  Mrs.  Bowman  without  provocation,  simply  for 
making  a  disrespectful  remark  after  the  killing  of  the  "Mor- 
risite" leader. 

The  defense  admitted  that  General  Burton  was  at  Kington 
Fort,  and  that  Morris,  Banks,  Mrs.  Bowman  and  a  Mrs. 
Swanee  were  killed  there ;  but  the  facts  did  not  show  that  they 
were  murdered.  Judge  ^Sutherland  maintained  that  General 
Burton  was  a  humane  man,  slow  to  anger,  averse  to  the  shed- 
ding of  blood,  and  that  he  had  made  every  effort  for  an  amic- 
able settlement  of  the  difficulty.  Having  entered  the  fort  after 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES.  317 

the  surrender,  not  with  his  whole  command,  as  alleged,  but 
with  only  twelve  or  fifteen  men,  he  saw  a  rush  of  the  "Mor- 
risites"  for  their  arms,  and  ordered  that  they  be  stopped.  A 
volley  was  fired  and  the  two  women  were  killed  by  accident. 

The  defendant,  sworn  as  a  witness,  admitted  shooting 
Morris,  but  denied  firing  at  anyone  else.  He  did  not  see  any 
woman  at  the  time,  nor  did  any  woman  address  him. 

Judge  Tilford  closed  a  masterly  plea  for  the  defendant 
with  these  thrilling  words :  "We  demand  his  acquittal,  as  due 
to  the  welfare  of  the  Territory,  the  security  of  life,  and  the 
enforcement  of  right;  we  demand  it  as  due  to  the  court,  whose 
mandate  placed  him  in  the  very  peril  that  compelled  the  hom- 
icide; we  demand  it  as  due  to  the  law,  whose  process  he  was 
executing  when  resistance  was  offered;  we  demand  it  as  due  to 
humanity,  whose  noblest  impulses  are  outraged  by  the  prose- 
cution of  one  whose  only  offense  consisted  in  discharging  his 
duty." 

On  the  5th  of  March  the  case  was  given  to  the  jury.  Two 
days  later  they  came  into  court,  and  by  their  foreman,  Joseph 
Gorlinski,  a  "Gentile,"  presented  a  verdict  of  not  guilty.  The 
announcement  was  greeted  with  loud  applause,  and  the  de- 
fendant was  overwhelmed  with  congratulations. 

The  Coalville  Affair. — Several  other  persons  were  under 
indictment  for  the  killing,  in  1867,  of  Isaac  Potter  and  Charles 
Wilson,  who,  with  one  John  Walker,  had  been  arrested  and 
imprisoned  at  Coalville.  The  building  in  which  they  were 
kept  was  a  rock  school  house,  in  temporary  use  as  a  jail.  It 
was  charged  that  the  prisoners  were  ordered  out  into  the  street 
one  night  by  a  party  of  men,  who  killed  two  of  the  three;  the 
survivor,  Walker,  also  being  wounded,  but  escaping  and  mak- 
ing his  way  to  Camp  Douglas.  Upon  his  affidavit  the  defend- 
ants had  been  arrested  and  examined  before  Chief  Justice 
Titus,  who  committed  them  to  the  care  of  the  Territorial 
Marshal,  pending  the  action  of  the  Grand  Jury.  It  transpired 
that  Potter,  Wilson  and  Walker  were  cattle  thieves,  and  it  was 
claimed  that  they  had  been  shot  by  their  guards  while  attempt- 
ing to  escape.  The  accused  parties  were  conveyed  to  the 
Penitentiary,  but  on  arriving  there,  took  leave  of  the  officer 
having  them  in  custody,  and  returned  to  their  homes;  subse- 
quently notifying  the  court  and  the  public,  through  the  press, 
that  they  would  appear  whenever  wanted.  The  Coalville  case 
never  came  to  a  jury  trial ;  the  indictments  found  by  the  Grand 
Jury  being  dismissed  on  motion  of  the  U.  S.  Attorney. 

The  Reynolds  Case  Decided. — Turning  now  from  dead 
issues  to  live  ones.  The  final  decree  in  the  Reynolds  case, 
upon  which  the  Anti-Bigamy  Law  had  been  taken  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  was  delivered  on  the  6th 


318      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  January,  1879.  It  confirmed  the  rulings  of  the  Utah  courts, 
and  declared  constitutional  the  law  of  Congress  enacted 
against  plural  marriage.  The  decision,  which  was  unanimous 
but  for  the  non-concurrence  of  Mr.  Justice  Field  upon  a  minor 
point,  was  voiced  by  Chief  Justice  Waite. 

The  Taylor-Hollister  Interview. — A  few  days  after  the 
decision  was  rendered,  a  notable  interview  took  place  between 
President  John  Taylor,  the  head  of  the  "Mormon"  Church, 
and  Colonel  O.  J.  Hollister,  United  States  Internal  Revenue 
Collector  for  Utah.  The  meeting,  which  had  been  solicited  by 
Colonel  Hollister  as  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune, 
was  at  the  President's  Office ;  a  number  of  prominent  men,  in 
addition  to  the  two  principals,  taking  part.  Asked  as  to 
whether  he  disagreed  with  Judge  Waite's  statement  of  the 
scope  and  effect  of  the  Constitutional  guarantee  of  religious 
freedom,  President  Taylor  answered  in  the  affirmative,  and 
added :  "A  religious  faith  amounts  to  nothing  unless  we  are 
permitted  to  carry  it  into  effect.  *  *  *  They  will  allow  us 
to  think — what  an  unspeakable  privilege  that  is ! — But  they 
will  not  allow  us  the  free  exercise  of  that  faith,  which  the  Con- 
stitution guarantees."  Of  the  extended  conversation  that 
ensued,  the  following  is  a  sufficient  digest: 

Colonel  Hollister :  "Is  it  not  true  that  marriage  is  the 
basis  of  society ;  that  out  of  it  spring  the  social  relations,  obli- 
gations, and  duties  with  which  governments  must  necessarily 
concern  themselves?  And  is  it  not  therefore  within  the  legiti- 
mate scope  of  the  power  of  every  civil  government  to  deter- 
mine whether  marriage  shall  be  polygamous  or  monogamous 
under  its  dominion?" 

President  Taylor:  "When  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  was  framed  and  adopted,  those  high  contracting  parties 
did  positively  agree  that  they  would  not  interfere  with  relig- 
ious affairs.  Now,  if  our  marital  relations  are  not  religious, 
what  is?  This  ordinance  of  marriage  was  a  direct  revelation 
to  us  through  Joseph  Smith  the  Prophet.  You  may  not  know 
it,  but  I  know  that  this  is  a  revelation  from  God  and  a  com- 
mand to  His  people,  and  therefore  it  is  my  religion.  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  any 
right  to  interfere  with  my  religious  views,  and  in  doing  it  they 
are  violating  their  most  sacred  obligations." 

Colonel  Hollister  :  "If  marriage  can  be  legitimately  called 
religion,  what  human  relation  or  pursuit  may  not  be  so  called? 
And  if  everything  is  religion,  and  the  State  is  prohibited  from 
interfering  with  it,  what  place  is  there  left  for  the  State?" 

Elder  Charles  W.  Penrose :  "That  is  easily  answered. 
When  one's  religion  presumes  to  interfere  with  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  others." 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES.  319 

Colonel  llollister:  "I  think  it  [polygamy]  interferes  with 
the  rights  of  men  and  women,  because  when  a  man  marries 
a  second  woman,  some  other  man  must  do  without  any.  The 
sexes  are  born  in  about  equal  numbers." 

President  Taylor:  "It  is  well  known  that'there  are  scores 
of  thousands  of  women  in  these  United  States  who  cannot 
obtain  husbands,  and  the  same  also  in  England  and  other 
Christian  countries.  And,  furthermore,  we  regard  the  plural 
order  of  marriage  as  being  voluntary,  both  on  the  part  of  the 
man  and  the  woman.  If  there  should  be  any  disparity  such 
as  you  refer  to — if  there  should  not  be  two  wives  for  one  man, 
why  then  he  could  not  get  them." 

Colonel  Hollister:  "Do  you  regard  polygamy  as  worthy 
of  perpetuation  at  the  cost  of  perpetual  antagonism  between 
your  people  and  their  countrymen?" 

President  Taylor :  "We  are  not  the  parties  who  produce 
this  antagonism.  Our  revelation,  given  in  August,  1831,  spe- 
cifically states  that  if  we  keep  the  laws  of  God  we  need  not 
break  the  laws  of  the  land.  Congress  has  since,  by  its  act, 
placed  us  in  antagonism  to  what  we  term  an  unconstitutional 
law.  Congress,  indeed,  can  pass  laws,  and  the  Supreme  Court 
can  sanction  those  laws ;  but  while  they  have  the  power,  being 
in  the  majority,  the  justice  of  those  laws  is  another  matter." 

Colonel  Hollister:  "Do  you  regard  polygamy  as  superior 
to  monogamy,  as  the  form  or  law  of  marriage,  and  if  so 
wherein?" 

President  Taylor :  "I  regard  it  as  altogether  superior  to 
the  law  of  monogamy,  in  a  great  many  particulars.  There  is 
in  all  monogamic  countries,  the  United  States  not  excepted,  a 
terrible  state  of  things  arising  from  the  practice  of  monogamy. 
We  acknowledge  our  children ;  we  acknowledge  our  wives ;  we 
have  no  mistresses.  We  had  no  prostitution  until  it  was  in- 
troduced by  monogamy.  Polygamy  is  not  a  crime  per  se 
[in  itself]  ;  it  was  the  action  of  Congress  that  made  polygamy 
a  crime.  The  British  Government  allows  one  hundred  and 
eighty  millions  of  their  people  to  practice  it,  and  by  the  law 
protects  them  in  it.  It  is  very  unfortunate  that  our  republican 
government  cannot  be  as  generous  to  its  provinces  as  a 
monarchial  government  can  be  to  its  colonies." 

Colonel  Hollister :  "You  hold,  then,  that  the  condemnation 
of  polygamy  by  all  Christian  nations  is  without  reason  and 
wisdom,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  revelation?" 

President  Taylor  :     "We  most  assuredly  do." 

Colonel  Hollister:  "Is  not,  in  fact,  what  you  call  revela- 
tion the  expression  of  the  crystallized  public  sentiment  of  your 
people;  and  if  a  majority  of  them  should  desire  to  abandon 


320      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

polygamy,  would  what  is  called  revelation  deter  them  from 
doing  so?" 

Elder  Joseph  F.  Smith  :  "It  is  very  unfair  in  you,  Mr. 
Hollister,  to  even  think  that  a  people  who  have  suffered  as  we 
have  for  our  faith,  having  been  driven  five  different  times  from 
our  homes  and  suffered  even  to  martyrdom,  should  be  insincere 
in  our  belief.  Questions  you  have  asked  here  repeatedly  imply 
that  we  could  get  up  revelations  to  suit  ourselves." 

Colonel  Hollister:  "What  effect,  on  the  whole,  do  you 
apprehend  Chief  Justice  Waite's  decision  will  have  on  the 
question?" 

President  Taylor:  "I  don't  know  that  it  will  have  any 
effect,  except  to  unite  us  and  confirm  and  strengthen  us  in 
our  faith." 

Sentence  Modified. — The  sentence  imposed  upon  the  de- 
fendant Reynolds  included  "hard  labor,"  which  was  found  to 
be  in  excess  of  the  law.  For  this  reason  an  effort  was  made 
to  have  the  case  reopened  and  the  proceedings  quashed.  The 
Court  at  Washington  refused  to  issue  such  an  order,  but  re- 
manded the  case  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Utah,  with  instruc- 
tions to  so  amend  the  sentence  as  to  omit  the  words  "hard 
labor."  A  petition,  signed  by  more  than  thirty  thousand  citi- 
zens, asking  for  the  defendant's  pardon,  was  forwarded  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes ;  but 
the  request  was  unheeded. 

Reynolds  in  Prison. — George  Reynolds  was  re-sentenced 
June  14,  1879.  Shortly  after,  under  an  order  from  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice,  he  set  out  for  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  in  charge  of 
Deputy  Marshals  George  A.  Black  and  William  T.  Shaugh- 
nessy.  He  remained  at  Lincoln  twenty-five  days,  acting  as 
book-keeper  for  the  State  Prison,  and  was  then  brought  back 
to  Utah  and  placed  in  the  Penitentiary,  where  he  served  out 
the  remainder  of  his  term,  barring  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
days,  remitted  on  account  of  good  behavior.  His  fine  was  also 
remitted. 

The  United  States  Marshal  at  that  time  was  Colonel 
Michael  Shaughnessy,  who  had  arrived  from  the  East  early  in 
April,  1878.  With  him  came  "General"  Butler,  a  bluff,  kind- 
hearted  old  veteran,  who  for  several  years  was  Warden  of  the 
Penitentiary.  Butler  and  his  wife,  also  the  guards,  treated  Mr. 
Reynolds  kindly,. permitting  him,  out  of  consideration  for  his 
good  conduct  and  the  circumstances  surrounding  his  case,  un- 
usual privileges.  While  in  prison  he  wrote  for  the  press  and 
taught  school,  having  the  other  inmates  as  students.  His  ex- 
ample and  instructions  had  such  an  effect  that  the  Warden 
was  wont  to  say :  "Reynolds  is  worth  more  than  all  the 
guards  in  keeping  order  among  the  prisoners." 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES.  321 

The  Miles  Case. — Another  case  of  polygamy  had  its 
inception  in  October,  1878;  John  H.  Miles,  a  resident  of  St. 
George,  being  the  party  defendant.  The  case  originated  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  where  Miles  was  arrested  and  had  a  hearing 
before  U.  S.  Commissioner  E.  T.  Sprague,  prior  to  his  indict- 
ment by  the  Grand  Jury.  The  evidence  showed  that  the  de- 
fendant and  Miss  Caroline  Owen,  late  of  London,  England, 
had  been  married  in  the  Endowment  House;  the  ceremony 
being  performed  by  General  Daniel  H.  Wells,  formerly  chief 
officer  of  the  Utah  Militia,  and  one  of  the  First  Presidency  of 
the  "Mormon"  Church;  but  at  this  time  holding  the  position  of 
Counselor  to  the  Twelve  Apostles.  Mrs.  Miles  alleged  that 
on  the  same  day,  and  just  prior  to  her  own  marriage,  her  hus- 
band had  wedded  Miss  Emily  Spencer,  also  of  St.  George. 
The  complainant  had  not  witnessed  the  ceremony,  but  declared 
that  she  had  consented  to  it,  and  had  seen  Emily  at  the  En- 
dowment House  that  day.  When  she  (Caroline)  was  married. 
Counselor  Wells  had  said  to  Miles :  "Your  first  wife  ought  to 
be  present  at  this  ceremony;"  and  during  a  reception  held  that 
evening  Emily  Spencer  was  referred  to  as  "Mrs.  Miles."  Fol- 
lowing a  disagreement  between  the  two  women,  Caroline  went 
next  morning  to  the  United  States  Marshal,  and  made  allega- 
tions resulting  in  the  arrest  of  her  husband  for  polygamy. 

Almost  immediately  she  sought  to  retrace  this  step,  with  a 
view  to  protecting  the  man  she  had  married.  She  wrote  a 
letter,  which  was  published  in  the  Salt  Lake  Herald,  denying 
all  that  she  had  previously  asserted  to  the  injury  of  her  hus- 
band. They  became  reconciled,  and  she  accompanied  him  to 
his  home  in  Southern  Utah.  Soon,  however,  she  again  left 
him,  and  at  the  time  of  his  trial  was  as  much  opposed  to  h'**- 
as  before. 

Before  Judge  Emerson. — The  Miles  trial  took  place  befor- 
Associate  Justice  Emerson,  at  Salt  Lake  City,  beginning  late 
in  April,  1879.  The  purpose  of  the  prosecution  was  to  prove  a 
marriage  between  John  Miles  and  Emily  Spencer,  for  only 
upon  that  basis  could  the  defendant  be  convicted  of  polygamy. 
His  marriage  with  Caroline  Owen  was  conceded,  and  her  testi- 
mony was  therefore  objected  to  by  the  defense,  since  a  wife 
could  not  legally  testify  against  her  husband.  The  marriage 
with  Miss  Spencer  was  denied,  and  to  show  that  it  had  taken 
place  just  before  the  other  ceremony,  was  the  aim  of  the  prose- 
cuting officers. 

At  the  trial  Caroline  Owen  Miles  gave  what  purported  to 
be  a  description  of  the  apparel  worn  by  those  passing  through 
the  Endowment  House,  her  testimony  having  special  reference 
to  the  dress  of  Emily  Spencer.  The  prosecution  sought  to 

20 


322      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

show  that  such  a  costume  was  invariably  worn  in  that  place 
by  persons  going  there  to  be  married,  and  to  establish  this 
point  and  corroborate  the  testimony  of  Mrs.  Miles,  Counselor 
Wells  was  called  to  the  stand.  In  answer  to  questions  from 
United  States  Attorney  Van  Zile,  the  witness  stated  that  it 
was  customary  for  persons  married  in  the  Endowment  House 
to  wear  certain  robes.  He  was  then  asked  to  describe  the 
robe,  but  declined  to  do  so.  The  Court  decided  that  the  ques- 
tions were  proper,  but  still  the  witness  refused  to  answer.  Ad- 
judged in  contempt,  he  was  committed  to  the  custody  of  the 
Marshal.  Later,  however,  he  was  released  and  given  an  op- 
portunity to  purge  himself  of  the  contempt.* 

Imprisoned  for  Contempt. — It  was  the  third  day  of  May, 
when  General  Wells,  with  his  attorneys,  appeared  before  Judge 
Emerson,  and  stated  that  he  would  try  to  answer  the  ques- 
tions that  had  previously  been  propounded.  Accordingly  they 
were  put  to  him  again,  but  in  such  a  way  that  he  felt  com- 
pelled to  reiterate  his  refusal,  declaring  himself  under  a  sacred 
obligation  to  preserve  secret  what  he  was  now  asked  to  reveal. 

Mr.  Van  Zile :  "Then  we  are  to  understand  that  you  have 
taken  an  oath  not  to  reveal  what  takes  place  in  the  Endowment 
House?" 

General  Wells :  "I  did  not  say  so — I  said  a  sacred  obliga- 
tion. I  consider  it  as  sacred  as  any  oath  taken  in  a  court  of 
justice." 

Judge  Emerson  informed  the  witness  that  he  had  not 
purged  himself  of  contempt,  but  by  his  present  attitude  was 
again  in  contempt. 

General  Wells :  "I  consider  any  person  who  reveals  the 
sacred  ceremonies  of  the  Endowment  House,  a  falsifier  and  a 
perjurer,  and  it  has  been  and  is  a  principle  of  my  life  never  to 
betray  a  friend,  my  country,  my  religion,  or  my  God." 

Subsequently  the  defendant  filed  an  affidavit,  disclaiming 
any  intentional  disrespect  to  the  court,  and  stating  that  he 
declined  to  answer  the  questions  wholly  upon  conscientious 
grounds.  He  was  willing  to  testify  to  any  material  fact  not 
covered  by  a  previous  obligation,  and  had  he  been  interrogated 
while  on  the  witness  stand,  would  have  stated  that  persons 

*The  Endowment  House,  which  stood  on  the  northwest  corner  of 
Temple  Block,  served  the  Latter-day  Saints  in  lieu  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Temple  until  that  edifice  was  completed.  Therein  were  performed 
religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  such  as  baptisms,  ordinations,  and  mar- 
riages, including  vicarious  work  for  the  dead.  It  was  regarded  as 
reprehensible  in  the  extreme  for  one  who  had  "passed  through  the 
House'"  to  reveal  what  they  saw  and  heard  there.  The  proceedings 
were  sacred  to  those  who  believed  in  them,  as  much  so  as  are  the 
ceremonies  and  obligation's  of  Free  Masonry  to  its  votaries. 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES.  323 

passing  through  the  Endowment  House  wore  special  garments, 
which  were  precisely  the  same  whether  the  wearer  was  there 
to  be  married  or  was  present  for  some  other  purpose.  Those 
married  were  not  distinguished  by  any  difference  in  dress. 

The  affidavit  was  supplemented  with  an  argument  from 
the  defendant's  attorney,  Judge  Sutherland,  to  the  effect  that 
the  questions  put  to  the  witness  were  irrelevant,  immaterial, 
and  unimportant;  and  it  was  contended  that  the  same  delicate 
consideration  should  be  shown  to  what  he  religiously  cher- 
ished, as  was  due  to  all  other  private  and  sacred  affairs  not 
within  the  proper  scope  of  judicial  inquiry. 

Judge  Emerson  :  "The  question  at  issue  is  not  a  personal 
one  between  the  defendant  and  myself,  but  between  the  de- 
fendant and  the  court  as  a  representative.  General  Wells  has 
defied  the  mandate  of  the  court,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  law 
must  be  maintained.  The  question  of  the  materiality  of  the 
inquiries  is  closed,  and  does  not  enter  into  this  matter,  but  I 
am  more  firmly  convinced  than  before  that  those  inquiries  are 
material.  It  is  a  very  disagreeable  duty  that  I  have  to  per- 
form, but  I  have  no  alternative.  It  is  ordered  that  the  defend- 
ant pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars,  and  that  he  be  impris- 
oned for  a  period  of  two  days." 

A  Great  Ovation. — General  Wells,  in  custody  of  Marshal 
Shaughnessy,  was  forthwith  conveyed  to  the  Penitentiary. 
Mis  imprisonment  caused  a  great  sensation.  The  "Mormon" 
community  was  profoundly  stirred,  and  the  larger  part  of  the 
population  of  Salt  Lake  City  and  neighboring  towns  turned 
out  to  welcome  him  on  his  release  from  prison.  Fully  ten 
thousand  people  marched  in  procession,  and  the  immense 
pageant  was  witnessed  by  many  thousands  more.  Midway, 
in  an  open  carriage,  rode  the  gray-haired  General,  in  company 
with  President  Taylor  and  other  leading  men,  who  had  met 
him  at  the  Burton  Farm,  three  miles  south  of  the  city.  They 
escorted  him  to  the  Tabernacle,  where  his  entrance  into  the 
thronged  auditorium  was  the  signal  for  tremendous  and  pro- 
longed applause.  Music  and  speeches  followed,  bringing  the 
reception  to  a  close. 

The  Salt  Lake  Herald,  describing  the  event,  said:  "We 
question  if  the  world  has  ever  before  seen  an  impromptu  dem- 
onstration of  this  magnitude  and  this  character  where  nothing 
was  said  or  done  that  could  be  found  fault  with,  or  which  gave 
no  occasion  for  alarm."  The  Salt  Lake  Tribune  denounced 
the  whole  affair  as  "a  public  defiance  of  the  national  judicial 
authorities."  That  paper  also  asserted  that  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  were  trailed  in  the  dust  bv  some  person  in  the  proces- 
sion. But  this  was  a  mistake.  There  were  many  American 
flags  in  that  procession,  but  they  were  borne  aloft,  not  trailed 


324      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

in  the  dust.  The  present  writer  was  there,  and  saw  it  all.* 
Miles  Convicted. — The  Miles  trial,  out  of  which  grew  this 
stirring  episode,  ended  while  the  procession  was  marching  up 
Main  Street.  As  it  passed  the  Federal  Court  Room,  which 
was  then  in  the  Wasatch  Block  at  Second  South  Street,  a 
placard  announcing  a  verdict  of  "Guilty"  was  displayed  from 
the  balcony  by  an  officer  of  the  court.  The  defendant  was 
sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars,  and  to  be  im- 
prisoned for  a  term  of  five  years.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Territory  affirmed  the  decision,  and  an  appeal  was  then  taken 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

Brigham  Young's  Estate  in  Litigation. — In  June,  1879,  an 
important  civil  suit  was  planted  in  the  Third  District  Court. 
The  parties  plaintiff  were  several  of  the  heirs  of  the  late  Presi- 
dent Young,  whose  executors,  George  Q.  Cannon,  Brigham 
Young,  Jr.,  and  Albert  Carrington,  were  proceeded  against 
upon  a  charge  of  "wilfully  wasting  and  converting"  a  large 
portion  of  the  President's  estate,  by  "pretending  to  allow"  the 
sum  of  $999,632.90  on  "a  false  and  fraudulent  claim"  presented 
by  the  Trustee-in-Trust  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  Application  was  made  for  an  injunction 
restraining  the  executors  from  the  further  performance  of  their 
duties,  and  enjoining  President  John  Taylor,  as  Trustee-in- 
Trust,  from  disposing  of  any  property  consigned  to  him  in  the 
settlement  of  said  claim.  Judge  Emerson  granted  the  applica- 
tion, issued  the  injunction,  and  appointed  two  receivers,  Wil- 
liam S.  McCornick,  banker,  and  United  States  Marshal 

*Here  are  a  few  samples  of  the  mottoes  carried  in  the  proces- 
sion: 

"The  rights  of  conscience  we  never  submitted,  we  could  not  sub- 
mit; we  are  answerable  for  them  to  our  God." — Thomas  Jefferson. 

"If  ever  the  laws  of  God  and  men  are  at  variance,  the  former  are 
to  be  obeyed  in  derogation  of  the  latter." — Blackstone- 

"Thou  shalt  not  forswear  thyself,  but  shall  perform  unto  the  Lord 
thine  oaths." — God's  Law. 

"Thou  shalt  forswear  thyself,  or  go  to  prison." — Modern  Law. 

"There  is  nothing  more  sacred  than  a  religious  obligation." 

"When  Freemasons,  Odd  Fellows  and  others  are  compelled  to 
mak-i  their  secrets  public,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  practice  on  Mor- 
mons; try  the  others  first." 

"Better  the  Penitentiary  for  faithfulness  in  this  world,  than  the 
Prison-house  for  perjury  in  the  next."  ' 

"We  do  not  care  so  much  about  the  color  and  cut  of  aprons  as  we 
do  apout  justice  and  equal  rights." 

"The  dignitv  of  courts  will  never  be  upheld  by  persecution  and 
proscription." 

"While  we  contend  for  religious  liberty,  we  do  not  rebel  against 
the  Government-" 

"We  venerate  the  Constitution,  we  honor  the  law,  we  respect  the 
Executive,  Congress  and  the  Judiciary;  we  bow  to  the  righteous  man- 
dates of  the  law,  but  we  despise  bigots,  we  execrate  tyranny,  and 
protest  against  intolerance  from  any  source." 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES. 


325 


Shaughnessy,  to  take  charge  of  all  property  involved  in  the 
litigation. 

President  Taylor,  in  his  reply,  showed  that  the  claim 
against  the  Estate  was  "a  bona  fide  existing  indebtedness," 
representing  the  value  of  property  held  by  the  late  President 
in  trust  for  the  Church.  It  had  been  fully  recognized  as  a 
liability  by  President  Young,  whose  will  authorized  his  exec- 
utors to  settle  all  such  trusts.  President  Taylor  therefore 
asked  that  the  injunction  be  dissolved,  the  order  appointing 
receivers  revoked,  and  the  action  dismissed  at  plaintiffs'  cost. 
The  Executors,  in  a  separate  answer,  corroborated  President 
Taylor's  statement. 

Executors  Imprisoned. — Then  came  the  arrest  of  the 
Trustee-in-Trust  and  the  Executors,  for  failing  to  turn  over 
certain  properties;  the  warrant  being  issued  by  Judge  Bore- 
man,  who  had  temporarily  succeeded  Judge  Emerson.  Presi- 
dent Taylor,  having  shown  that  he  had  complied  with  the 
order  of  the  court  as  far  as  possible,  was  discharged  from  cus- 
tody, but  the  Executors,  for  refusing  to  furnish  additional 
security,  were  committed  to 
the  Penitentiary.  There  they 
remained  until  the  28th  of 
August,  when  Judge  Boreman's 
order  was  reversed  and  set 
aside  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Territory.* 

Settled  by  Agreement. — 
The  suit  of  the  Heirs  versus  the 
Executors,  with  a  counter-suit 
brought  by  the  Church  for  the 
recovery  of  its  property,  was 
settled  by  agreement  between 
the  parties.  The  final  decree 
in  the  case,  dated  October  4, 
1879,  was  issued  by  Chief  Jus- 
tice John  A.  Hunter.  Judge 
Hunter  was  from  Missouri,  and 
had  arrived  in  Utah  during  the 
previous  summer. 

Governor  Murray.  —  The 
successor  to  George  W.  Emery  GOVERNOR  MURRAY. 

*Dtiring  the  litigation  George  Goddard,  who  had  charge  of  the 
Black  Rock  House  and  grounds  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  Lake, 
holding  the  property  under  a  deed  from  the  Trustee-in-Trust,  was 
arrested  and  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  surrender  it.  The  charge 
against  him  was  contempt  of  court,  but  he  was  liberated,  and  the  case 
dismissed,  as  soon  as  the  Marshal  had  secured  possession  of  the 
property. 


326      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

as  Governor  of  Utah  was  Eli  H.  Murray,  of  Kentucky,  re- 
putedly the  handsomest  man  in  the  Blue  Grass  State.  He  was 
indeed  fine  looking,  and  possessed  a  genial,  jovial  nature. 
Hospitable  and  convivial  in  disposition,  he  easily  made  friends, 
and  as  a  rule  they  remained  loyal  and  devoted  to  him.  Some- 
thing of  a  journalist  and  a  lawyer,  though  not  distinguished  as 
either,  Murray,  during  the  Civil  War,  had  been  one  of  Sher- 
man's officers  in  his  famous  "March  to  the  Sea."  Subsequently 
he  was  United  States  Marshal  of  Kentucky.  The  date  of  his 
arrival  at  Salt  Lake  City  was  February  29,  1880. 

The  Year  of  Jubilee. — That  year  was  a  notable  one  in 
Utah.  It  witnessed  "The  Mormon  Jubilee,"  commemorating 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Church  of  the  Latter-day  Saints ; 
and  there  was  'also  an  elaborate  celebration  of  Pioneer  Day. 
It  was  during  the  General  Conference  in  April  that  President 
Taylor  brought  the  subject  of  the  Jubilee  before  the  vast  con- 
gregation, reminding  them  of  the  custom  in  ancient  Israel 
to  observe  every  fiftieth  year  by  proclaiming  "liberty  through- 
out all  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof."  At  such 
times  poor  debtors  were  released,  bondmen  freed,  lost  inherit- 
ances restored,  and  a  season  of  general  rejoicing  inaugurated. 
He  and  his  associates  had  thought  that  the  close  of  "Mor- 
monism's"  first  half  century  should  witness  something  of  like 
character. 

The  proposition  was  timely  and  appropriate,  for  during  the 
previous  year  a  drouth,  followed  by  a  severe  winter,  had  caused 
Considerable  suffering  in  some  parts.  President  Taylor 
suggested,  as  measures  of  relief:  First,  the  remission  of 
one-half  the  indebtedness  due  to  the  Perpetual  Emigrating 
Fund  Company,  amounting  to  $802,000;  Second,  the  remission 
of  one-half  the  amount  of  unpaid  tithing,  equivalent  to  $75,- 
899.00;  Third,  the  distribution  by  the  Church  to  the  poor,  of 
one  thousand  head  of  cows  and  five  thousand  head  of  sheep  ; 
Fourth,  a  loan  by  the  Relief  Societies,  to  farmers  needing  seed 
grain,  of  the  wheat  stored  up  by  those  societies,  amounting  to 
34761  bushels. 

These  measures  having  been  approved  by  the  Conference, 
the  President  continued  the  subject,  advising  the  rich  and 
prosperous  to  forgive  their  poor  debtors,  and  suggesting  that 
Z.  C.  M.  I.  set  an  example  among  business  houses,  by  can- 
celling upon  its  books  the  accounts  of  those  who  were  unable 
to  make  settlement. 

"The  Tree  of  Liberty."— July  came,  and  with  it  a  "Gen- 
tile" observance  of  Independence  Day,  an  exclusive  affair,  to 
which  no  "Mormon"  was  bidden.  The  program  was  rendered 
on  Washington  Square,  since  adorned  by  the  stately  Salt  Lake 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES. 


327 


City  and  County  Building.  Mr.  P.  L.  Williams  was  orator 
of  the  day,  and  Governor  Murray  also  addressed  the  open  air 
assemblage.  The  oration  by  Mr.  Williams  was  eloquent,  and 
of  course  patriotic,  containing  nothing  to  offend  any  person 
or  class.  But  the  Governor  let  play  his  poetic  fancy  in  an 
allusion  to  "The  Tree  of  Liberty,"  as  being  "rich  enough  in 
timber  to  construct  scaffolds  and  coffins  for  all  those  who  may 
treasonably  conspire  to  break  down  our  Constitution  and  to 
violate  its  written  laws."  Nobody  was  frightened  at  the 
gruesome  metaphor,  though  some  thought  it  in  bad  taste, 
particularly  at  such  a  time.  The  Deseret  News,  knowing 
the  target  of  the  inuendo,  took  occasion  to  inform  his  Excel- 
lency that  just  such  talk  had  been  heard  in  years  past  from  men 
who  had  since  gone  the  way  of  all  flesh  and  were  slumbering 
in  forgotten  graves,  while  the  object  of  their  attack  was  still 
alive  and  flourishing.  The  answer  of  the  Pioneer  Day  Com- 
mittee was  a  polite  invitation  to  Governor  Murray  and  his 
friends  to  take  part  in  the  approaching  celebration. 

Acceptance  Not  Acted  Upon. — The  Governor  responded 
with  an  equally  polite  note  of  acceptance,  in  which  he  gra- 
ciously said  a  good  word  for  the  Pioneers.  Similar  com- 
munications were  received  from  nearly  all  the  local  represen- 
tatives of  the  Federal  Government.  Not  one  of  them,  how- 
ever, attended  the  celebration;  just  why,  is  not  very  clear, 


SALT    LAKE    CITY    AND    COUNTY    RUTLDING. 


328      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

since  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles"  had  more  than  once  coalesced 
on  such  occasions,  and  were  destined  to  do  so  again  and  again. 
A  tentative  explanation  is  that  events  were  on  the  wing  which 
made  it  undesirable,  from  the  "Anti-Mormon"  point  of  view, 
for  Guelf  and  Ghibelline  to  unite  and  thus  convey  the  impres- 
sion to  the  country  at  large  that  all  was  well  in  Utah. 

Twenty-Five  Nations  Represented. — The  Pioneer  Day 
celebration  was  probably  the  most  complete  and  successful 
affair  of  its  kind  that  Utah  had  known.  Conspicuous  in  the 
long  pageant  parading  the  streets  of  the  capital,  were  three 
floats  carrying  natives  of  various  countries  then  represented  in 
the  population  of  the  Territory.  These  nationalities  numbered 
twenty-five — a  man  and  a  woman  to  each.  The  nations  rep- 
resented by  them  were  the  United  States,  the  American  In- 
dians, Canada,  Hawaii,  Holland,  Germany,  France,  Spain, 
Switzerland,  Italy,  South  Africa,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Norway, 
Iceland,  Schleswig-Holstein,  Russia,  Ancient  Britain,  England, 
Ireland,  Scotland,  Wales,  Isle  of  Man,  British  India,  and  Aus- 
tralia. Upon  one  of  their  banners  was  inscribed  the  prophetic 
legend  :  "I  will  gather  you  out  from  all  nations." 

Past  and  Present  Conditions. — Part  of  the  program  was 
rendered  in  the  Tabernacle,  the  interior  of  which  presented  a 
striking  spectacle.  At  the  west  end,  in  living  pictures,  was 
portrayed  Utah,  or  the  country  embraced  within  her  boun- 
daries, as  the  Pioneers  found  it,  and  as  it  had  since  become 


INTERIOR  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES. 


329 


under  the  blessing  of  Providence  and  the  industry  of  the  peo- 
ple. At  one  side  of  the  organ,  under  a  scroll  bearing  the  date 
1847,  was  a  pine  grove,  surrounded  by  sage  brush,  with  figures 
of  deer,  buffalo,  and  other  wild  animals  showing  among  the 
branches;  while  near  by  arose  a  wickiup  or  tepee,  before  which 
sat  an  Indian  family.  On  the  other  side,  under  the  date  1880, 
stood  a  handsomely  furnished  modern  dwelling,  surrounded 
with  exotics,  house  plants,  and  various  kinds  of  flowers  and 
garden  shrubbery,  forming  an  arbor  under  which  were  seated 
women  and  children.  Over  all  hung  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
Fcrty-two  of  the  original  Pioneer  Company,  including  one  of 
its  three  women,  Mrs.  Clara  Decker  Young,  were  present  on 
the  occasion. 

Another  Presidential  Visit. — The  Jubilee  Year  was  ren- 
dered still  more  interesting  by  a  visit  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  the  5th  of  September,  when  President 
Hayes,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  Secretary  of  War  Ramsey, 
General  Sherman,  General  A.  McDowell  McCook  and  others, 
reached  Salt  Lake  City,  en 
route  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  The 
first  news  of  their  coming  had 
been  received  by  General  Smith 
at  Fort  Douglas,  and  as  early 
as  the  20th  of  August,  at  a 
meeting  of  Federal  officers  and 
other  "Gentile"  citizens  in  the 
Walker  House  parlors,  a  com- 
mittee had  been  formed  to  make 
arrangements  for  their  recep- 
tion. Governor  Murray  was 
the  chairman. 

The  Municipal  Authorities 
had  also  taken  steps  to  honor 
the  Chief  Magistrate  by  tender- 
ing the  usual  courtesies.  Their 
committee,  which  included  rep- 
resentatives of  all  classes,  had 
been  instructed  to  invite  Fed- 
eral and  Fort  Douglas  officers  to  participate.  Mayor  Fera- 
morz  Little  sent  a  telegram  to  the  President,  tendering  to  him 
and  his  party  the  hospitalities  of  Salt  Lake  City,  but  received 
the  reply  that  by  prior  arrangement  he  was  to  be  the  guest  of 
the  Governor  of  the  Territory.  "I  hope  you  are  acting  in 
concert,"  was  the  concluding  sentence  of  the  President's  dis- 
patch. The  Mayor  and  his  associates,  having  no  alternative, 
abandoned  their  preparations,  and  as  private  citizens  joined 
with  the  people  in  giving  welcome  to  the  Nation's  Chief. 


PRESIDENT    HAYES. 


330      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Governor  Murray  and  his  committee  met  President  Hayes 
at  Weber  Station  (Morgan),  a  small  railroad  town  east  of 
Ogden.  At  the  latter  place  the  visitors  were  received  by 
President  John  Taylor,  General  Daniel  H.  Wells,  Delegate 
George  Q.  Cannon  and  others,  who  had  taken  a  special  train 
from  the  capital  for  that  purpose.  Between  Ogden  and  Salt 
Lake  multitudes  of  people,  including  many  children,  greeted 
the  President  and  Mrs.  Hayes,  who  hailed  the. little  ones  with 
genuine  delight. 

After  leaving  the  train  the  President  and  his  party,  run- 
ning the  gauntlet  of  public  salutation,  were  driven  to  the 
Walker  House,  where  the  guest  of  honor  came  out  upon  the 
portico,  and  was  introduced  by  Governor  Murray  to  the  crowd 
thronging  the  street  and  sidewalks.  It  being  the  Sabbath, 
President  Hayes  excused  himself  from  making  a  speech,  but 
uttered  a  few  words  in  praise  of  all  that  he  had  beheld  in  Utah, 
thanking  the  people  for  their  hearty  welcome  and  kind  recep- 
tion. Secretary  Ramsey  and  General  Sherman  each  spoke 
briefly,  and  Mrs.  Hayes,  in  response  to  a  general  call,  appeared 
and  smilingly  bowed  in  acknowledgment  of  the  three  hearty 
cheers  given  in  her  honor. 

Monday's  proceedings  in- 
cluded a  visit  to  Temple  Block, 
a  public  reception  at  the  Walk- 
er House,  and  a  drive  to  Fort 
Douglas,  where  the  President 
took  luncheon.  At  one  p.  m.  he 
continued  his  journey. 

Other    Notable    Comers.— 

Between  the  visits  of  President 
Grant  and  President  Hayes,  the 
most  notable  arrivals  in  Utah 
were  Baron  Lionel  de  Roths- 
child, "the  modern  Midas," 
and  Dom  Pedro,  Emperor  of 
Brazil.  Within  the  next  few 
years  came  Llenry  Ward  Beech- 
er,  to  lecture  in  the  Salt  Lake 
Theatre;  Edwin  Booth,  who 
played  an  engagement  there ; 
and  Adelina  Patti,  the  first 
great  prima  donna  to  sing  in 
the  Tabernacle. 

I'KKSIMKXT    IOF1X  TAYLOR. 

President  Taylor  and  Coun- 
selors Installed.— The  month  following  the  visit  of  the  Hayes 
party  witnessed  the  formal  installation  of  John  Taylor  as 


DEAD  AND  LIVING  ISSUES.  331 

President  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 
He  chose  George  Q.  Cannon  and  Joseph  F.  Smith  as  his  Coun- 
selors, and  on  the  10th  of  October,  the  fifth  day  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  which  was  held  as  usual  in  the  Tabernacle, 
the  three  were  presented  and  sustained  as  the  First  Presidency 
of  the  Church. 

End  of  the  Miles  Case. — In  April,  1881,  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  handed  down  its  decree  in  the  Miles  case. 
It  held  that  an  error  had  been  committed  in  the  trial  court  by 
allowing  Caroline  Owen  to  give  evidence  against  Miles,  touch- 
ing his  alleged  marriage  with  Emily  Spencer,  since  the  law  in 
Utah  provided  that  a  wife  should  not  be  a  witness  for  or 
against  her  husband,  or  vice  versa.  "The  marriage  of  Miles 
with  Caroline  Owen,"  said  the  Court,  "was  charged  in  the 
indictment,  and  admitted  by  him  upon  trial.  The  fact  of  his 
previous  marriage  with  Emily  Spencer  was  therefore  the  only 
issue  in  the  case,  and  that  was  contested  to  the  end  of  the  trial. 
Until  the  fact  of  the  marriage  of  Emily  Spencer  with  Miles 
was  established,  Caroline  Owen  was  prima  facie  his  wife,  and 
she  could  not  be  used  as  a  witness."  The  case  was  remanded 
for  a  new  trial,  but  none  took  place.  The  United  States 
Attorney  felt  that  a  conviction  was  impossible,  and  the  prose- 
cution was  therefore  abandoned. 


XXV. 

THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY   MOVEMENT. 

1878-1882. 

"Gentile"  Women  Organize. — Just  after  the  preliminary 
examination  in  the  Miles  case,  an  organization  styling  itself 
"The  Anti-Polygamy  Society"  was  formed  among  the  "Gen- 
tile" women  of  Salt  Lake  City.  This  Society,  which  became 
national  in  its  scope  and  activities,  played  a  prominent  part  in 
the  general  movement  that  soon  began  for  the  suppression  of 
the  practice  of  plural  marriage.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Anti-Polygamists,  which  was  held  in  the  Congregational 
Church  (Independence  Hall)  November  7,  1878,  about  two 
hundred  persons  were  present,  mostly  women.  Mrs.  Sarah  A. 
Cooke,  who  had  once  been  a  "Mormon,"  presided  on  that  oc- 
casion. The  Secretary  of  the  Society  was  the  wife  of  General 
Moses  M.  Bane,  Receiver  of  the  United  States  Land  Office.* 

To  the  Women  of  the  Nation.— The  members  of  the  Anti- 
Polygamy  Society,  signed  and  sent  forth  a  document  addressed 
"To  Mrs.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  and  the  Women  of  the  United 
States."  Therein  they  referred  to  polygamy  as  "a  great 
crime, "-and  declared  that  it  had  never  taken  such  a  debasing 
form  among  any  people  above  the  condition  of  barbarism  as 
in  Utah.  Then  followed  this  comment:  "That  it  should  be 
practiced  in  the  name  and  under  the  cloak  of  religion,  and  that 
an  Apostle,  a  polygamist  with  four  acknowledged  wives,  is 
permitted  to  sit  in  Congress,  only  adds  to  the  enormity  of  the 
crime,  and  makes  it  more  revolting  to  our  common  Christian 
principles."  In  the  closing  paragraph  they  called  upon  "the 
Christian  women  of  the  United  States"  and  "every  minister  of 
the  Gospel,"  to  join  "in  urging  Congress  to  empower  its  courts 
to  arrest  the  further  progress  of  this  evil,  and  to  delay  the 
admission  of  Utah  into  Statehood  until  this  is  accomplished." 
Copies  of  the  address,  and  of  a  memorial  to  Congress  asking  for 
legislation  that  would  render  effective  the  Anti-Bigamy  Law, 
were  circulated  throughout  the  United  States  for  signatures. 

*An  assault  by  this  lady's  step-son,  Dr.  Harry  Bane,  upon  the 
person  of  Mr.  A.  M.  Musser,  owing  to  certain  articles  communicated 
to  and  published  in  the  Salt  Lake  Herald,  was  one  of  the  exciting 
incidents  of  that  time.  At  the  close  of  Bane's  examination  in  the 
Police  Court,  Musser  returned  the  assault,  using  upon  his  antagonist 
the  same  whip  that  had  figured  in  the  original  attack.  Both  parties 
were  held  to  answer  to  the  Grand  Jury,  1>nt  nothing  more  came  of  the 
affair. 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY    MOVEMENT. 


333 


This  action  was  supplemented  by  the  establishment  of  a 
paper  called  "The  Anti-Polygamy  Standard,"  and  the  sending 
of  lecturers  (women)  through  the  Eastern  States,  to  awaken 
an  interest  in  the  cause.  .  Two  of  these  lecturers  were  Mrs. 
Jennie  Froiseth  and  Mrs.  A.  G.  Paddock.  The  result  was  the 
formation  of  many  branch  societies,  all  modeled  after  and 
drawing  inspiration  from  the  parent  organization  in  Utah. 
The  institution  in  its  entirety  was  known  as  "The  Women's 
National  Anti-Polygamy  Society." 

A  Counter  Demonstration. — The  first  noticeable  effect  of 
the  agitation  was  a  counter  movement  among  the  women  of 
the  "Mormon"  community, 
who,  thronging  the  Salt  Lake 
Theatre  on  the  16th  of  Novem- 
ber, put  the  stamp  of  their  em- 
phatic disapproval  upon  the 
aims  and  methods  of  the  Anti- 
Polygamists.  Their  address 
was  characterized  as  "false  and 
misleading,"  and  resolutions 
were  adopted  affirming  a  belief 
in  plural  marriage  and  denying 
the  allegations  made  against  it. 
Among  the  speeches  delivered 
was  one  by  Eliza  R.  Snow,  the 
leading  "Mormon"  woman  of 
the  period.  A  memorial  to  Con- 
gress was  adopted,  asking  that 
body  not  to  enact  the  legisla- 
tion that  had  been  suggested. 
The  signers  of  the  memorial 
also  requested  that  the  elective 
franchise  be  conferred  upon  the 
women  of  the  Nation. 

The     Evarts      Circular.—  ELIZA  R.  SNOW. 

During  the  following  summer 

an  official  letter  was  issued  by  Secretary  of  State  William  M. 
Evarts,  instructing  representatives  of  the  United  States  in 
various  European  nations  to  ask  of  the  governments  at  whose 
courts  or  in  whose  shipping  ports  they  discharged  their  func- 
tions, to  assist  in  suppressing  "Mormon"  emigration  to  this 
country.  The  reason  assigned  for  the  proposed  embargo  was 
that  the  "Mormons"  were  devotees  of  a  faith  that  tolerated 
polygamy,  which  had  been  made  by  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  a  crime.  It  was  assumed  that  all  "Mormons"  believed 
in  and  would  practice  polygamy,  and  that  those  who  designed 


334      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

emigrating  to  Utah  were  therefore  prospective  violators  of  the 
Federal  Statutes. 

The  proposed  punishment  (by  embargo)  of  men  and 
women  for  crimes  they  were  suspected  of  intending  to  com- 
mit, was  rather  a  new  doctrine  to  American  minds,  and  more 
or  less  novel  to  European  intellects.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  the  Evarts  Circular  became  a  subject  for  criti- 
cism and  even  ridicule  among  statesmen  and  diplomats  the 
world  over. 

Gladstone  and  "Mormon"  Emigration. — Premier  Glad- 
stone, when  requested  to  prevent  young  women  in  Great 
Britain  from  emigrating  to  Utah,  replied :  "I  presume  the 
young  people  go  there  of  their  own  accord."  To  this  common- 
sense  conclusion  of  England's  "Grand  Old  Man,"  be  it  added 
that  the  Latter-day  Saints  have  never  put  forth  any  special 
efforts  for  the  conversion  of  women;  all  sensational  tales  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding.  "Mormon"  missionaries  preach 
to  and  baptize  both  sexes,  but  are  under  strict  instructions  not 
to  receive  into  the  Church  any  married  woman  without  the 
consent  of  her  husband,  nor  young  people  of  either  sex  who  are 
under  age  without  the  permission  of  their  parents. 

Presidential  Recommendations. — In  December,  1879,  Pres- 
ident Hayes  included  in  his  message  to  Congress  a  reference 
to  polygamy,  recommending  that  "more  comprehensive  and 
searching  methods  for  preventing  as  well  as  punishing  this 
crime  be  provided."  That  was  nine  months  before  the  Presi- 
dent visited  Utah.  Soon  after  his  return  from  the  West  he 
addressed  to  Congress  his  final  message,  containing  similar 
suggestions.  What  President  Hayes  said  upon  the  subject, 
was  virtually  repeated  by  his  successor,  President  Garfield,  in 
his  inaugural  address,  and  by  President  Arthur  in  his  first 
message  to  Congress. 

Scope  and  Purpose. — It  began  to  look  as  if  the  local  move- 
ment were  but  the  opening  skirmish  to  a  general  assault  all 
along  the  line  of  the  "Mormon"  defenses,  ecclesiastical  and 
political.  And  such,  indeed,  it  proved  to  be,  whether  con- 
certed or  otherwise.  The  Anti-Polygamy  Society,  with  its 
apparent  object — the  expulsion  or  exclusion  from  Congress  of 
the  Delegate  from  Utah — played  into  the  hands  of,  and  was 
virtually  an  adjunct  to,  the  "Anti-Mormon"  political  party. 

People  and  Liberals. — In  the  autumn  of  1880,  by  the  usual 
overwhelming  majority,  George  Q.  Cannon  was  re-elected 
Delegate  to  Congress.  Already  he  had  been  chosen  four  times 
for  the  place,  and  twice  after  election  his  right  to  the  seat  had 
been  contested ;  but  after  each  contest  he  had  been  admitted 
to  the  House  of  Representatives  and  had  served  out  his  term. 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY   MOVEMENT. 


335 


After  the  unsuccessful  attempt  to  unseat  him  in  1874,  there 
were  two  elections  at  which  the  Liberal  Party  failed  to  put  up 
a  ticket;  and  in  March,  1879,  the  People's  Party,  under  a  new 
registration  law,  regained  control  of  Tooele  County.  The 
Liberal  nominee  for  Congress 
in  1880  was  Allen  G.  Campbell, 
a  rich  mining  man  of  Southern 
Utah.  Tuesday,  November  2nd, 
was  the  date  of  the  election; 
the  time  for  choosing  the  Dele- 
gate having  been  changed  from 
the  month  of  August  pursuant 
to  an  Act  of  Congress. 

The  Election  Returns.— 
On  the  fourteenth  day  of  De- 
cember, in  the  presence  of  Gov- 
ernor Murray  and  others,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Territory,  Ar- 
thur L.  Thomas,  opened  the  re- 
turns of  the  November  elec- 
tion.* It  was  shown  that 
George  Q.  Cannon  had  received 
18,568  votes,  and  Allen  G. 
Campbell  1,357  votes,  as  Dele- 
gate to  the  Forty-Seventh  Con- 
gress. The  next  thing1  in  order, 
had  the  regular  order  been  ob- 
served, was  the  issuance  of  a 

certificate  of  election,  under  the  Congressional  statute  govern- 
ing in  such  cases,  and' which  provided  as  follows: 

"Every  Territory  shall  have  the  right  to  send  a  Delegate  to  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  to  serve  during  each 
Congress,  who  shall  be  elected  by  the  voters  in  the  Territory  qualified 
to  elect  members  of  the  Legislative  Assembly  thereof.  The  person 
having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  shall  be  declared  by  the  Governor 
duly  elected,  and  a  certificate  shall  be  given  accordingly." — Revised 
Statutes  of  the  United  States,  Section  1862. 

In  this  case  "the  person  having  the  greatest  number  of 
votes"  was,  of  course,  George  Q.  Cannon;  and  he,  therefore, 
was  entitled  to  the  certificate.  But  it  was  not  the  purpose  of 
the  Governor  of  Utah  to  be  guided  by  the  law  of  Congress  in 
dealing  with  this  matter. 

*Mr.  Thomas  was  a  native  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  and  had  begun  his 
official  career  as  a  page  in  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washing- 
ton. He  was  Secretary  of  Utah  under  Governor  Emery,  and  continued 
in  that  office  when  Murray  became  Executive. 


GEORGE   Q.    CANNON. 


336      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Campbell's  Protest. — Just  before  the  opening  of  the  re- 
turns, a  document  signed  by  Allen  G.  Campbell  had  been  filed 
with  the  Secretary  of  the  Territory.  Therein  Mr.  Campbell 
protested  against  the  issuance  of  the  certificate  to  Mr.  Cannon, 
and  demanded  that  it  be  given  to  himself.  The  main  ground 
of  the  protest  was  an  allegation  to  the  effect  that  George  Q. 
Cannon  was  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  therefore 
not  eligible  to  the  office  of  Delegate.  It  was  also  contended 

that  his  ineligibility,  resulting 
from  alienage,  was  aggravated 
by  polygamy,  incompatible 
with  citizenship  and  incon- 
sistent with  an  honest  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  Consti- 
tution. 

Cannon's  Reply. — Dele- 
gate Cannon,  to  whom  a  copy 
of  the  protest  was  sent,  for- 
warded his  reply  from  Wash- 
ington, answering  each  alle- 
gation in  its  order.  First,  he 
denied  the  right  of  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  Secretary  to  "go 
behind  the  returns;"  their  du- 
ties as  canvassing  officers  be- 
ing purely  ministerial.  They 
had  no  judicial  powers  in  this 
connection  if  the  election  re- 
turns were  in  substantial  con- 
formity to  law.  It  was  the 
Governor's  plain  duty  to^give  to  ''the  person  having  the  great- 
est number  of  votes"  the  certificate  of  election,  and  it  remained 
for  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  only  tribunal  empowered 
to  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  its  members,  to  decide  any 
question  of  eligibility. 

In  answer  to  the  charge  of  alienage,  Mr.  Cannon  declared 
that  he  was  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  had  proved  it 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  whose 
Committee  on  Elections  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  had 
unanimously  overruled  this  precise  objection,  made  at  that 
time  by  his  opponent,  Mr.  Baskin.  As  to  polygamy,  the  Com- 
mittee on  Elections  of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  when  Mr. 
Maxwell  was  the  contestant,  had  unanimously  held,  and  the 
House  had  concurred  in  the  view,  that  the  only  qualifications 
or  disqualifications  of  Delegates  were  those  prescribed  by  the 
Constitution  for  Representatives,  and  that  polygamy  was  not 
a  disqualification  for  a  seat  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress. 


I 


ALLEN  G.   CAMPBELL. 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY   MOVEMENT.  337 

Mr.  Campbell's  claim  that  the  certificate  should  be  issued  to 
him,  involved  the  political  heresy  that  the  ineligibility  of  a 
candidate  having  the  highest  number  of  votes  gave  the  election 
to  an  eligible  candidate  having  a  lower  number  of  votes ;  a 
doctrine  more  than  once  repudiated  by  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives. 

The  Defeated  Candidate  Declared  Elected. — The  presenta- 
tion of  documents  was  followed  by  oral  arguments.  John  R. 
McBride,  a  prominent  attorney,  appeared  for  the  protester, 
while  William  H.  Hooper  and  John  T.  Caine  represented  the 
absent  Delegate.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  hearing  Governor 
Murray  rendered  his  decision — to  this  effect :  George  Q.  Can- 
non was  an  unnaturalized  alien,  and  the  credentials  could  not 
lawfully  be  given  to  one  who  was  not  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Cannon,  being  a  polygamist,  could  not  now  be 
naturalized,  since  his  marital  relations  were  incompatible  with 
an  honest  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitution.  "It  having 
been  shown,"  said  the  Governor,  "that  Mr.  Cannon  is  not  a 
citizen,  and  that  he  is  incapable  of  becoming  a  citizen,  I  cannot, 
under  the  law,  certify  that  he  is  'duly  elected ;'  and  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, having  received  the  greatest  number  of  votes  cast  for  any 
citizen,  was  therefore  duly  elected,  and  must  receive  the  cer- 
tificate accordingly."  Thereupon  the  document  was  awarded 
to  Mr.  Campbell;  its  date  being  January  8,  1881. 

How  the  Act  was  Viewed. — Governor  Murray's  substitu- 
tion of  the  word  "citizen"  for  the  word  "person,"  in  the  Act  of 
Congress  relating  to  election  certificates,  was  prima  facie  proof 
that  he  had  no  right  to  do  as  he  had  done.  The  case  stood 
thus:  The  candidate  of  his  political  party  had  been  "snowed 
under"  at  the  polls — utterly  vanquished;  and  this  was  Mur- 
ray's method  of  "snatching  victory  from  the  jaws  of  defeat." 
Not  finding  the  law  on  his  side,  he  bent  the  law  to  suit  his 
purpose,  as  others  had  done  before  him.  With  him,  as  with 
them,  "the  end  justified  the  means,"  and  it  was  "lawful  to  do 
evil"  in  order  that  "good"  might  come.  He  was  sworn  to 
uphold  the  laws  of  his  country,  and  in  his  Fourth  of  July 
speech,  that  year,  had  virtually  threatened  with  "scaffolds  and 
coffins"  any  who  conspired  to  "break  down"  those  laws.  Yet 
he  did  precisely  what,  he  himself  had  condemned,  thus  setting 
an  example  of  disobedience  before  those  whose  reclamation 
from  "lawlessness"  he  professed  to  desire.  Respect  for  law 
must  be  taught,  if  the  process  of  teaching  it  broke  every 
statute  in  the  national  archives.  Such  was  the  logic  of  the 
Governor's  position. 

The  belief  was  very  general  that  Murray  had  exceeded  his 
authority.  President  Hayes  expressed  that  opinion  in  an  in- 

21 


33cS      \VHJT\TKVS  POPULAR  HISTORY  OK  UTAH. 

terview  with  Delegate  Cannon.  Here  are  a  few  press  com- 
ments upon  the  subject :  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat — "Gov- 
ernor Murray,  of  Utah,  is  on  his  way  East  to  receive  congrat- 
ulations for  his  conduct  in  giving  a  certificate  of  election  to  a 
man  who  had  no  title  to  it."  Sacramento  Record-Union— "All 
he  had  to  do  was  to  issue  the  certificate,  and  he  has  issued  it, 
in  defiance  of  the  law,  to  the  man  who  was  defeated,  instead 
of  to  the  man  who  was  elected."  Chicago  Times — "The  man- 
ner in  which  Cannon  has  been  treated  is  simply  an  inexcusable 
outrage."  Boston  Herald — "If  Delegate  Cannon  was  legally 
elected,  he  is  entitled  to  his  certificate.  If  he  is  disqualified  by 
reason  of  felony  or  any  other  cause,  Congress  alone  has  the 
power  to  deny  him  a  seat."  New  York  Graphic — "A  refusal 
of  a  certificate  to  Cannon  would  not  warrant  the  granting  of  a 
certificate  to  Campbell."  New  York  Tribune — "It  is  a  pity 
that  the  opponents  of  polygamy  should  give  their  adversaries 
any  advantage  by  taking  a  clearly  untenable  position.  *  *  * 
The  House  will  be  compelled,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  refuse 
Campbell  his  seat." 

An  Opposite  Expression. — The  Governor's  friends,  how- 
ever, voiced  another  view  of  the  question.  Some  papers  de- 
fended or  palliated  the  course  that  he  had  taken.  One  of  these 
was  the  Louisville  Courier-Journal  (Henry  Watterson's  paper) 
published  in  Murray's  home  State.  In  Utah  the  "Anti-Mor- 
mons" stood  by  him  to  a  man.  The  Liberal  Party,  or  the 
framers  of  its  next  political  platform,  warmly  commended  the 
Governor  as  "a  faithful,  fearless,  and  patriotic  public  officer," 
one  who  in  the  matter  of  the  election  certificate  had  "per- 
formed his  official  duty  in  a  bold,  manly,  and  patriotic  man- 
ner." 

Murray's  Plan  a  Failure. — Throughout  the  Nation  the  con- 
census of  opinion  was  such  that  it  soon  became  apparent  that 
Governor  Murray's  plan  for  getting  rid  of  the  Delegate-elect 
and  putting  the  minority  candidate  in  his  place,  would  not 
commend  itself  to  the  law-making  powers  at  Washington.  It 
was  evident  that  some  better  way — some  legal  method  must 
be  found,  to  exclude  the  man  whom  the  vast  majority  of  the 
voters  in'  Utah  had  chosen  to  represent  the  Territory  in  the 
halls  of  Congress.  Such  a  method  was  eventually  provided, 
and  the  desired  object  attained.  Meanwhile  the  futile  contest 
went  on. 

A  Point  for  the  Delegate. — In  February,  1881,  while  Gov- 
ernor Murray  was  absent  from  Utah,  legal  proceedings  were 
instituted  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  Acting  Governor 
Thomas  to  issue  a  certificate  of  election  to  George  Q.  Cannon. 
An  alternative  writ  of  mandate  was  issued;  and  the  hearing 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY    MOVEMENT.  339 

took  place  before  Associate  Justice  Stephen  P.  Twiss,  who  had 
recently  succeeded  Judge  Boreman  and  was  officiating  tem- 
porarily at  Salt  Lake  City.  Judge  Twiss  decided  that  the 
Court  could  not  compel  the  Acting  Governor  to  issue  the  cer- 
tificate. As  Secretary,  however,  Mr.  Thomas  obligingly  gave 
a  certified  statement  of  the  number  of  votes  cast  for  each  can- 
didate at  the  election;  and  this  statement  was  forwarded  to 
Washington.  Upon  the  showing  thus  presented,  the  Clerk  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  Mr.  George  M.  Adams,  of  Ken- 
tucky, placed  the  name  of  George  Q.  Cannon  upon  the  roll  of 
members  at  the  opening  of  the  Forty-Seventh  Congress. 

Efforts  to  Retrieve. — Surprised  by  this  sudden  turn  in 
affairs,  the  Liberal  leaders  sought  at  once  to  regain  the  lost 
ground  which  had  slipped  so  unexpectedly  from  under  the  feet 
of  their  candidate.  Efforts  were  made  to  induce  Chief  Justice 
Hunter  to  decree  that  George  Q.  Cannon  was  not  an  American 
citizen,  and  to  enjoin  him  from  drawing  the  salary  and  com- 
pensation pertaining  to  the  office  of  Delegate.  Judge  Hunter 
granted  the  injunction,  but  subsequently  it  was  dissolved,  and 
the  complaint  dismissed. 

The  Question  of  Citizenship. — George  Q.  Cannon's  alleged 
lack  of  citizenship  rested  upon  two  grounds,  both  technical. 
He  had  been  admitted  a  citizen  in  December,  1854,  but  the 
record  of  his  admission  was  not  in  the  Minute  Book  of  the  Dis- 
trict Court ;  it  having  been  customary  at  that  time  to  keep  the 
record  of  naturalizations  in  a  special  book  provided  under  an 
order  issued  by  Associate  Justice  Shaver.  This  book,  contain- 
ing the  evidence  of  Mr.  Cannon's  citizenship,  was  presented  to 
Governor  Murray,  who  nevertheless  declared  that  the  court 
records  failed  to  prove  him  a  citizen.  The  other  ground  of 
objection  was  that  George  Q.  Cannon,  at  the  time  of  making 
oath  that  he  had  resided  five  years  in  the  United  States  (the 
usual  requirement  made  of  foreign-born  applicants  for  citizen- 
ship) had  spent  most  of  that  period  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands, 
upon  a  mission  for  his  Church.  This  showing  was  met  by  the 
argument  that  one's  residence  is  where  one's  home  is,  and  that 
Elder  Cannon's  home,  during  his  mission,  was  in  Salt  Lake 
Valley,  to  which  place  he  returned  as  soon  as  his  mission 
ended.  That  view  of  the  case  had  been  taken  by  a  Congres- 
sional committee  in  one  of  the  former  contests  against  him, 
and  the  decision  was  in  his  favor. 

A  Crusade  of  Calumny. — Those  who  worked  most  zeal- 
ously for  legislation  that  would  punish  polygamy  and  at  the 
same  time  exclude  the  Utah  Delegate,  were  not  content  to  sub- 
mit to  Congress  and  the  country  a  mere  statement  of  facts. 
As  usual  when  great  changes,  social,  religious,  or  political, 
have  been  resolved  upon,  and  the  case  against  the  people  who 


340      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

happen  to  be  the  object  of  the  revolutionary  effort  is  not  strong 
enough  to  stand  alone,  gross  exaggeration  and  flagrant  false- 
hood were  employed,  in  order  to  arouse  and  maintain  the  hos- 
tile sentiment  upon  which  the  movement  depended  for  its  suc- 
cess. A  crusade  of  calumny  was  inaugurated,  and  priests, 
editors  and  politicians,  in  most  parts  of  the  country,  engaged 
in  it  with  a  zeal  rivaling  that  of  John  Brown  and  the  Aboli- 
tionists, or  of  Peter  the  Hermit  during  the  Mediaeval  Cru- 
sades. 

Church  Influence. — "Church  influence,"  the  use  of  which 
in  politics  was  charged  against  the  "Mormon"  leaders,  and  con- 
stituted one  of  their  cardinal  crimes  in  the  eyes  of  their  oppo- 
nents, was  freely  and  openly  invoked  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
political  power  of  those  leaders.  The  Anti-Polygamy  Society, 
in  its  address  "to  the  women  of  the  Nation,"  had  urged  them 
to  call  upon  "every  minister  of  the  Gospel"  to  join  "in  urging 
Congress  to  empower  its  courts  to  arrest  the  further  progress 
of  this  evil."  And  the  ministers  promptly  responded.  Nearly 
all  the  Protestant  churches  of  America,  including  those  in 
Utah,  took  part  in  this  Nation-wide  movement,  and  from  their 
pulpits,  all  over  the  land,  an  incessant  verbal  cannonade  was 
kept  up  during  the  sessions  of  Congress  in  1881  and  1882.  Dr. 
Talmage,  the  great  Beecher's  noisy  successor  at  the  Brooklyn 
Tabernacle,  wanted  the  United  States  Government  to  "thunder 
into"  the  "Mormons"  "the  seventh  commandment,"  with  "can- 
non of  the  biggest  bore."  Reverend  Joseph  Cook,  of  Boston, 
was  equally  splenetic  and  un-Christian.  Several  of  the 
churches  held  conventions  and  passed  resolutions  against  the 
religion  of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  A  Methodist  Conference  in 
Ogden,  Utah,  resolved  that  "polygamy  should  not  be  reasoned 
with,  but  stamped  out;"  an  opinion  which  Dr.  Newman,  Orson 
Pratt's  sometime  antagonist,  was  supposed  to  share. 

The  Deseret  News,  commenting  upon  this  mixture  of  re- 
ligion with  politics,  said :  "There  is  a  big  noise  over  an  alleged 
connection  between  'Mormonism'  and  Utah  politics,  while  at 
the  same  time  Methodism  and  other  isms  are  interfering  in 
national  politics  and  urging  legislation  with  all  the  church  in- 
fluence they  can  command." 

A  Notable  Exception. — The  Catholic  Church  took  no  part 
in  these  proceedings.  Many  years  later,  Bishop  Lawrence 
Scanlan,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  in  conversation  with  an  Eastern 
newspaper  representative  who  had  said  to  him  "I  do  not  see 
your  name,  Bishop,  on  protests  and  other  papers  that  some  of 
the  ministers  here  are  circulating,"  replied :  "No,  I  never  join 
in  anything  of  that  kind.  My  mission  here  is  not  to  make  war 
among  the  Mormon  people,  or  any  other  people,  but  rather  to 
be  the  bearer  of  the  message  of  peace  and  good  will  toward  all 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY   MOVEMENT. 


341 


men.     If  there  is  any  law  to  be  enforced,  I  leave  that  for  my 
Government  to  do."* 

Garfield's  Assassination. — In  the  midst  of  the  anti-"Mor- 
mon"  furore,  came  the  shock  of  President  Garfield's  assassina- 
tion, July  2nd,  1881,  followed  by  his  death  in  September.  The 
murderous  assault  upon  the  President  took  place  just  after  the 
authorities  of  Salt  Lake  City  had  completed  arrangements  for 
the  opening  of  Liberty  Park  on  Independence  Day.  All  was 
ready  for  that  observance,  when  the  awful  news  came,  causing 
the  celebration  to  be  abandoned.  Upon  the  issuance  of  Presi- 
dent Arthur's  proclamation  appointing  a  day  of  humiliation 
and  mourning  for  the  Nation's  dead,  President  Taylor  wrote 
to  Governor  Murray,  tendering  the  use  of  the  Tabernacle  for 
general  memorial  services.  The  offer  was  declined,  on  the 
ground  that  previous  arrangements  with  ministers  of  other 
churches  prevented  acceptance.  The  Latter-day  Saints,  as- 
sembling by  themselves,  appropriately  honored  the  memory 
of  the  departed. 

The  Boston  Watchman's  Canard. — While  the  Chief  Mag- 
istrate, pierced  by  the  assassin's  bullet,  was  hovering  between 
life  and  death,  "The  Boston  ••;.••,?•,.. 

Watchman"  published  a  state- 
ment to  the  effect  that  "the 
Praying  Circle  of  the  Mormon 
Church  was  engaged  in  con- 
tinual supplications  for  the 
death  of  President  Garfield." 
It  declared  that  the  Deseret 
News  had  said  so.  The  News 
denounced  the  statement  as  an 
"atrocious  untruth,"  and  chal- 
lenged the  Watchman  to  pro- 
duce its  proof.  This  it  could 
not  do.  The  Baptist  paper  was 
but  following  the  lead  of  other 
journals  and  periodicals  which 
had  begun  a  systematic  course 
of  misrepresentation,  with  the 
evident  design  of  arousing  pub- 
lic prejudice  and  forcing  Con- 
gress to  take  action  on  the  pending  issue. f 

Partial  Presentations. — Contributions  upon  the  Utah  sub- 
ject were  solicited  by  leading  American  magazines ;  but  it 


PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


*Newark  ("New  Jersey)  News,  June,  1903. 

tTalm.ige.  the  Brooklyn  pastor,  went  so  far  as  to  insinuate  that 
the  assassin  of  President  Garfield  was  a  "Mormon;"  an  absurd  allega- 
tion denied  by  Guiteau  himself,  from  prison. 


342      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

transpired  that  only  a  one-sided  presentation  was  wanted  in 
most  cases.  Articles  from  "Anti-Mormon"  sources  were 
welcomed,  but  those  who  published  them  refused  any  space 
for  a  reply. 

The  Pistol  and  Bible  Story. — Another  extravagant  tale 
that  went  the  rounds  purported  to  give  the  experience  of  a 
young  Presbyterian  clergyman,  Duncan  J.  McMillan,  who,  it 
was  said,  went  to  Sanpete  Valley  in  1875,  and  established  "the 
first  school  ever  known  there."  The  author  of  this  romance 
related  how  Brigham  Young,  George  Q.  Cannon,  and  others 
repaired  to  Sanpete,  and  before  a  full  congregation  on  the  Sab- 
bath day  urged  the  people  to  kill  the  unoffending  minister. 
Thereafter  three  attempts  were  made  upon  the  life  of  Mc- 
Millan, who  withstood  his  assailants  by  holding  a  loaded  pistol 
in  one  hand  while  he  preached  to  them  with  a  Bible  in  the 
other.  Affidavits  from  reputable  citizens,  "Gentiles"  and 
"Mormons,"  punctured  this  falsehood,  and  at  a  public  meeting 
in  Mt.  Pleasant,  McMillan  himself  denied  the  truth  of  the 
story.  He  promised  to  publish  his  denial  in  the  Utah  papers, 
but  failed  to  keep  his  word.  There  had  been  schools  in  San- 
pete Valley  since  the  year  1850,  and  the  Reverend  McMillan 
had  visited  some  of  them.  The  Pistol  and  Bible  canard  was 
older  than  McMillan's  day,  having  been  invented  by  J.  P.  Ly- 
ford,  a  Methodist  minister,  who  palmed  it  off  as  an  experience 
of  his  own  at  Provo,  Utah  County. 

The  Contest  at  Washington. — The  Campbell-Cannon  con- 
test had  its  opening  debate  in  the  national  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives on  the  6th  of  December,  1881.  Proceedings  con- 
tinued at  intervals  until  April,  1882,  the  matter  meanwhile 
being  in  the  hands  of  the  Committee  on  Elections,  to  whom  it 
had  been  referred.  Mr.  Cannon's  citizenship  did  not  figure  in 
any  of  the  discussions.  The  whole  debate  hinged  upon  the 
question  of  polygamy.  The  Utah  Delegate  was  reputed  to  be 
the  husband  of  four  wives ;  in  fact,  he  admitted  it.  But  there 
was  no  evidence  that  he  had  married  since  the  enactment  of 
the  Anti-Bigamy  Law.  Consequently  he  was  not  a  violator  of 
that  statute,  which  was  not  retroactive,  and  contained  no  allu- 
sion to  polygamous  cohabitation.  More  legislation  was  needed 
before  the  Delegate  could  be  disqualified  from  continuing  to 
hold  his  seat;  and  the  needed  legislation  came.  A  law  was 
enacted  while  the  contest  against  him  was  pending — a  law  de- 
signed especially  to  meet  the  case  of  the  gentleman  from  Utah. 

The  Edmunds  Bill. — It  was  just  a  week  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  debate  in  the  Utah  election  case,  when  Senator 
George  E.  Edmunds,  of  Vermont,  came  forward  with  a  meas- 
ure which,  if  enacted,  would  effect  the  exclusion  from  Congress 
of  the  Apostle  "with  four  acknowledged  wives."  The  Ed- 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY   MOVEMENT. 


343 


niunds  Bill  made  punishable,  not  only  polygamy — the  plural 
marriage  itself — but  polygamous  living,  which  it  termed  "un- 
lawful cohabitation."  Those  living  in  plural  marriage  rela- 
tions were  made  ineligible  for  public  office  "in,  under,  or  for 
any  Territory  of  the  United  States."  It  was  this  provision 
that  determined  the  issue  in  the  Cannon  case. 

The  Anti-Poly gamists  Again. — The  day  that  the  Edmunds 
Bill  came  before  the  Senate  a  souvenir  from  the  Women's 
National  Anti-Polygamy  Society  was  laid  upon  the  desk  of 
each  member  of  Congress.  It  consisted  of  a  handsomely  en- 
graved card,  bearing  on  one  fold,  in  printed  crimson  letters,  a 
statement  made  by  Delegate  Cannon  during  the  election  con- 
test, wherein  he  admitted  that  he  was  a  member  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints;  that  in  accordance  with 
the  tenets  of  that  Church  he  had  taken  plural  wives  who  now 
lived  with  him  and  had  borne  him  children ;  and  that  in  public 
addresses  in  Utah,  as  a  teacher  of  his  religion,  he  had  defended 
the  doctrine  of  plural  marriage  as  a  revelation  from  God.  On 
the  other  fold,  in  golden  letters,  appeared  the  anti-polygamy 
paragraph  of  President  Arthur's  message  to  Congress. 

President  Arthur's  Recommendation. — In  that  message 
the  President  referred  to  the  Supreme  Court  decision  in  the 
Miles  case,  and  to  the  difficulty 
of  proving  polygamous  mar- 
riages. He  recommended  that 
an  act  be  passed  "providing 
that  in  the  Territories  of  the 
United  States  the  fact  that  a 
woman  has  been  married  to  a 
person  charged  with  bigamy 
shall  not  disqualify  her  as  a 
witness  upon  the  trial  for  that 
offense."  Pie  also  urged  the 
need  of  legislation  that  would 
require  the  filing  of  marriage 
certificates  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Territory. 

Memorials  From  Utah. — 
The  Utah  Legislature  forward- 
ed to  Washington  memorials 
setting  forth  the  true  situation 
in  this  Territory,  and  entreat- 
ing Congress  not  to  act  hastily  upon  any  extreme  measure 
affecting  the  interests  of  its  people.  They  also  asked  for  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  of  investigation.  In  various  towns 
public  meetings  were  held,  and  four  mammoth  petitions,  signed 
by  sixty-five  thousand  persons,  were  prepared  and  sent  to  the 


PRESIDENT   ARTHUR. 


344      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Nation's  capital,  all  protesting  against  the  enactment  of  un- 
friendly legislation.  These  appeals  were  in  vain.  The  only 
ones  that  made  any  impression  were  those  that  came  from  the 
opposite  side,  and  mostly  from  people  who  knew  little  or 
nothing  about  affairs  in  Utah. 

Effects  of  the  Agitation. — As  a  result  of  the  sensational 
proceedings  that  have  been  described,  the  public  mind  was 
much  inflamed  and  embittered.  Anti-"Mormon"  mass  meet- 
ings were  held  in  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  other  large  cities.  In 
some  parts  of  the  South  missionaries  from  Utah  were  threat- 
ened, and  the  houses  at  which  they  stayed  were  beset  by 
armed  ruffians  and  riddled  with  bullets.  Congress  was  fairly 
flooded  with  petitions  from  all  quarters,  praying  for  speedy 
action  upon  the  burning  question. 

Railroaded  Through. — The  Edmunds  Bill  was  debated  in 
the  United  States  Senate  on  the  15th  and  16th  of  February, 
1882.  After  passing  that  body,  it  went  to  the  House,  and  was 
considered  on  the  14th  of  March.  There  the  entire  discussion 
occupied  only  about  two  hours,  speeches  being  limited  to  five 
minutes  each.  Some  of  them  were  exceedingly  bitter,  notably 
those  of  Mr.  Cassady,  of  Nevada,  and  Mr.  Haskell,  of  Kansas. 
Having  been  ''railroaded  through"  the  House,  the  measure  re- 
ceived the  signature  of  President  Arthur  and  became  a  law 
on  the  22nd  of  March. 

Outline  of  the  Edmunds  Law. — The  Edmunds  Law  de- 
clared that  every  person  having  a  husband  or  wife  living  who 
thereafter  married  another,  whether  married  or  single,  and  any 
man  who  thereafter  simultaneously  or  on  the  same  day  married 
more  than  one  woman,  in  a  Territory  or  other  place  over  which 
the  United  States  had  exclusive  jurisdiction,  was  guilty  of 
polygamy,  and  was  punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  more  than  five 
hundred  dollars  and  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  of  not  more 
than  five  years.  Exceptions  were  made  in  cases  where  one 
party  might  have  believed  the  other  dead,  or  where  divorce  had 
been  granted  by  the  valid  decree  of  a  competent  court. 

Any  male  person  cohabiting  with  more  than  one  woman 
in  a  Territory  or  other  place  over  which  the  United  States  had 
exclusive  jurisdiction,  was  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  liable 
to  punishment  by  a  fine  of  not  more  than  three  hundred  dollars, 
or  by  imprisonment  for  not  more  than  six  months,  or  by  both 
said  punishments,  in  the  discretion  of  the  court. 

Tn  any  prosecution  for  bigamy,  polygamy,  or  unlawful 
cohabitation,  it  would  be  sufficient  cause  of  challenge  to  any 
person  drawn  or  summoned  as  a  juryman  or  talesman,  first, 
that  he  was  or  had  been  living  in  the  relations  described,  or, 
second,  that  he  believed  it  rieht  for  a  man  to  have  more  than 
one  living  and  undivorced  wife  at  the  same  time,  or  to  live  in 


THE  ANTI-POLYGAMY    MOVEMENT.  345 

the  practice  of  cohabiting  with  more  than  one  woman.  The 
person  challenged  was  not  bound  to  answer  any  question  the 
answer  to  which  might  tend  to  criminate  himself,  but  if  he  de- 
clined to  answer  on  any  ground  he  was  to  be  rejected  as  in- 
competent. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  was  authorized  to 
grant  amnesty  to  offenders  against  the  anti-polygamy  laws, 
upon  such  conditions  and  under  such  limitations  as  he  might 
think  proper;  but  no  such  amnesty  was  to  have  effect  unless 
the  conditions  should  be  complied  with.  Polygamous  children 
born  before  the  first  day  of  January,  1883,  were  legitimated. 

No  polygamist,  bigamist,  or  any  person  cohabiting  with 
more  than  one  woman,  and  no  woman  cohabiting  with  any  of 
the  persons  described,  was  to  be  entitled  to  vote  at  any  election, 
or  to  be  eligible  for  election  or  appointment  to,  or  be  entitled 
to  hold  any  civic  office  or  position  of  public  trust,  honor  or 
emolument,  in,  under  or  for  any  Territory  of  the  United  States. 

All  registration  and  election  offices  in  the  Territory  of 
Utah  were  declared  vacant,  and  provision  was  made  for  plac- 
ing the  duties  pertaining  to  the  same  upon  "proper  persons," 
to  be  appointed  by  a  board  of  five  members,  who  were  to  re- 
ceive their  appointment  from  the  President,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate.  Not  more  than  three  of  this 
board  of  five  were  to  belong  to  one  political  party. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Territory  was  to  be  the  Secretary  of 
the  Board,  and  the  Board  was  to  canvass  the  returns  of  all 
votes  cast  at  elections  for  members  of  the  Territorial  Legisla- 
ture, and  to  issue  certificates  of  election  to  those  who,  being 
eligible,  should  appear  to  have  been  lawfully  elected.  The 
Legislative  Assembly  so  constituted  was  empowered  to  make 
such  laws,  conformable  to  the  Organic  Act  of  the  Territory 
and  not  inconsistent  with  other  laws  of  the  United  States,  as 
it  should  deem  proper  for  filling  the  vacant  offices. 

Each  member  of  the  Board  was  to  receive  a  salary  of  three 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  they  were  to  continue  in  office 
until  the  Legislative  Assembly,  elected  and  qualified  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Edmunds  Law,  should  provide  for  filling  the 
registration  and  election  offices  as  authorized  by  that  statute. 

The  Denouement. — All  was  now  ready  for  the  winding 
up  scene — the  predetermined  rejection  of  the  Utah  Dele- 
gate. Before  final  action  was  taken,  Mr.  Cannon,  on  the  19th 
of  April,  was  permitted  to  address  the  House.  He  briefly 
sketched  Utah's  record  in  Congress,  showing  that  the  Terri- 
tory had  been  represented  by  four  delegates,  namely :  John  M. 
Bernhisel,  John  F.  Kinney,  William  H.  Hooper  and  George  Q. 
Cannon;  the  first  and  fourth  polygamists,  the  other  two  mo- 
nogamists. Denying  that  he  represented  in  Congress  any  re- 


346      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ligious  body,  he  stated  that  all  reputable  male  members  of  his 
Church  held  some  office  therein,  a  fact  responsible  for  the  sup- 
position that  Church  and  State  were  united  in  Utah.  All  the 
forms  of  political  procedure  found  in  other  Territories  and  in 
the  States  prevailed  in  this  commonwealth,  the  political  and 
religious  organizations  being  entirely  distinct  from  each  other. 
Mr.  Cannon  defended  plural  marriage  as  a  divine  institution, 
and  declared  that  the  Edmunds  Law  had  been  made  retroactive 
in  order  to  reach  his  case.  He  was  there  as  the  Delegate  from 
LTtah,  regularly  elected,  properly  qualified  and  fully  entitled 
to  the  seat,  his  right  to  it  having  been  vindicated  by  the  House, 
which  had  permitted  him  to  occupy  it  during  the  four  preced- 
ing Congresses,  when  he  came  under  precisely  the  same  cir- 
cumstances as  now.  He  denounced  the  denial  to  him  of  the 
election  certificate  as  a  fraud,  and  his  proposed  exclusion  as  an 
effort  to  murder  Utah's  representation  upon  the  floor  of  the 
Ltouse. 

The  speech  was  listened  to  with  profound  attention,  and 
at  the  close  there  was  a  hearty  round  of  applause.  The  House 
then  adopted  a  resolution  reported  by  a  majority  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Elections,  declaring  vacant  the  seat  of  the  Utah 
Delegate.  Neither  Mr.  Cannon  nor  Mr.  Campbell  was  per- 
mitted to  occupy  it.  The  "Mormon"  was  shut  out;  but  Gov- 
ernor Murray's  high-handed  course  in  giving  a  certificate  of 
election  to  a  man  who  was  not  elected,  received  no  vindica- 
tion.* 


*Delegate  Cannon  had  many  friends  in  Congress,  and  some  of 
them,  braving  public  opinion  and  the  wrath  of  their  constituents,  re- 
fused to  vote  for  his  exclusion.  Others  who  did  so  vote,  afterwards 
confessed  to  him  privately,  that  in  taking  that  course  the\^  had  yielded 
to  popular  clamor  and  "committed  the  most  cowardly  act  of  their 
lives." 


XXVI. 

THE  UTAH  COMMISSION. 

1882-1883. 

Personnel  of  the  Board. — The  Board  provided  for  in  the 
Edmunds  Law,  to  have  supervision  of  elections  in  this  Terri- 
tory, became  known  as  "The  Utah  Commission."  It  was 
originally  constituted  as  follows :  Alexander  Ramsey,  of  Min- 
nesota; Algernon  S.  Paddock,  of  Nebraska;  George  L.  God- 
frey, of  Iowa;  Ambrose  B.  Carlton,  of  Indiana;  and  James  R. 


Paddoc!:     (Secretary  Thomas)     I^amsey  Godfrey          Pettigrew  Carlton 

THE  UTAH   COMMISSION 

Pettigrew,   of  Arkansas.       These   gentlemen   arrived   at   Salt 
Lake  City  on  the  18th  of  August,  1882. 

Their  failure  to  appear  earlier  upon  the  scene  of  their 
labors  gave  rise  to  a  complication,  resulting  in  another  Con- 
gressional enactment.  For  this,  however,  the  Commissioners 
were  not  responsible.  Rather  was  it  due  to  President  Arthur's 
delay  in  appointing  them.  The  Edmunds  Bill  was  signed  by 
the  President  in  March,  but  it  was  not  until  June  that  the 


348      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Board  was  appointed,  and  not  until  July  that  its  members  re- 
ceived their  credentials.  This  was  too  late  for  the  regular 
revision  of  the  registration  lists  prior  to  the  summer  elections. 
The  President's  delay  was  doubtless  owing  to  his  desire  to 
obtain  suitable  men  for  the  places.  For  that  reason,  also,  he 
afterwards  advised  an  increase  in  the  salaries  of  the  Commis- 
sioners ;  a  suggestion  acted  upon  by  Congress,  the  figure  being 
raised  from  three  thousand  to  five  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

Congressional  Action  Invoked. — The  immediate  cause  of 
the  additional  Act  of  Congress  was  a  letter  sent  from  Salt  Lake 
City  and  presented  in  the  United  States  Senate  while  that 
body,  on  the  second  day  of  August,  was  considering  in  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole  the  Sundry  Civil  Appropriation  Bill.  The 
letter  was  signed  by  Chief  Justice  Hunter  and  by  Associate 
Justices  Emerson  and  Twiss.  They  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  Edmunds  Law  vacated  all  registration  and  election 
offices  in  Utah,  and  that  no  registration  of  voters  had  been 
made  in  the  Territory  that  year.  The  local  law  required  this 
to  be  done  in  May,  and  revised  the  first  week  in  June.  The 
failure  of  the  registration,  and  the  lack  of  election  officers, 
would  prevent  the  holding  of  the  election  fixed  for  the  first 
Monday  in  August,  at  which  time  successors  would  have  been 
chosen  to  all  the  county  officers,  also  to  the  Territorial  Auditor 
and  Treasurer,  as  directed  by  Territorial  statute.  The  Judges 
went  on  to  show  that  these  successors  could  not  now  be  chosen 
for  the  reasons  given,  and  the  failure  to  elect  was  liable  to 
cause  general  disturbance  and  trouble,  especially  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  many  of  the  incumbents  were  understood  to  be 
polygamists,  and  so  disqualified  from  holding  office.  They 
therefore  asked  that  Congress  would  take  measures  to  provide 
for  legal  successors  to  all  the  incumbents  whose  successors 
would  have  been  chosen  at  the  August  election,  "and  thereby 
secure  the  continuance  of  good  order  and  the  regular  and  un- 
disputed support  of  organized  government,  which  otherwise 
would  be  seriously  jeopardized." 

The  Hoar  Amendment. — To  meet  a  situation  supposed  to 
be  serious,  Senator  Hoar  of  Massachusetts,  assisted  by  Senator 
Bayard  of  Delaware  and  Senator  Lapham  of  New  York,  pre- 
pared an  amendment,  to  be  inserted  in  the  bill  then  under  con- 
sideration, empowering  the  Governor  of  Utah  to  fill  by  ap- 
pointment all  vacancies  that  might  be  caused  by  the  lapse  of 
the  August  elections.  The  proposed  amendment  caused  some 
discussion,  Senator  Brown  of  Georgia  being  its  chief  oppo- 
nent. He  deemed  it  superfluous,  and  wanted  to  know  why  the 
incumbents  could  not  hold  over,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  until 
their  successors  were  elected  and  qualified.  He  was  answered 


THE.  UTAH   COMMISSION.  349 

that  most  of  the  offices  in  Utah  were  held  by  polygamists — a 
statement  in  excess  of  what  the  three  Judges  had  asserted — 
and  that  polygamists  were  disqualified  by  the  Edmunds  Law. 
Seeing  that  his  opposition  would  not  avail,  the  Senator  insisted 
upon  a  limitation  of  the  term  of  the  Governor's  appointees  to 
eight  months,  and  this  change  being  made,  the  Hoar  Amend- 
ment, as  it  was  termed,  passed  the  Senate.  In  the  House,  Mr. 
Converse  of  Ohio  endeavored  to  have  it  modified  still  further, 
but  his  effort  was  unsuccessful. 

Governor  Murray's  Appointments. — As  soon  as  the  new 
law  went  into  effect  the  Governor  of  Utah  proceeded  to  make 
appointments  to  fill  vacancies — not  only  in  the  offices  held  by 
polygamists,  but  in  those  held  by  monogamists  as  well.  All 
offices,  the  election  for  which  would  have  occurred  in  August, 
1882,  were  considered  vacant,  and  appointments  were  made 
to  fill  them,  regardless  of  any  hold-over  provision  in  the  local 
statutes.  Most  of  the  apointees  were  "Gentiles."  In  a  few 
instances,  where  no  other  material  was  available,  the  "Mor- 
mon" incumbents  were  retained.  In  all,  about  two  hundred 
persons  were  commissioned  to  office  by  the  Executive. 

The  Governor  chose  as  Sheriff  of  Iron  County  a  man  who 
was  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States;  an  inadvertence  made 
much  of  by  Murray's  critics,  recalling  as  it  did  his  refusal  of 
the  election  certificate  to  Delegate  Cannon,  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  "an  unnaturalized  alien."  The  newly  appointed 
Sheriff,  who  was  a  resident  of  Parowan,  hastened  to  Beaver, 
the  seat  of  the  District  Court,  and  took  out  naturalization 
papers,  on  being  informed  of  the  "greatness"  so  suddenly 
"ihrust  upon"  him.  Another  resident  of  Parowan  declined  the 
appointment  of  Probate  Judge,  because  unwilling  to  occupy  a 
position  where,  as  he  claimed,  he  would  not  have  the  hearty 
support  of  a  majority  of  the  people. 

Incumbents  Refuse  to  Vacate. — All  or  most  of  the  officers 
whom  the  Governor  sought  to  displace  ignored  his  action,  or 
prepared  to  resist  to  the  last  legal  extremity.  Like  the  Senator, 
from  Georgia,  they  regarded  the  Hoar  Amendment  as  a  super- 
fluous piece  of  legislation.  Now  that  it  was  upon  the  statute 
books,  however,  they  insisted  that  it  be  construed  and  exe- 
cuted according  to  the  intent  of  its  framers.  It  was  not  de- 
signed to  create  vacancies,  but  to  provide  for  filling  such  as 
might  have  been  caused  by  the  lapse  of  the  recent  elections. 
Public  servants  whose  terms  had  expired  or  were  about  to 
expire,  and  who  could  not  legally  continue  in  office  till  their 
successors  were  elected  and  qualified,  should  give  way' for  the 
Governor's  appointees;  but  all  others  should  remain  in  their 
places  until  regularly  succeeded.  Those  "understood  to  be 


350      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

polygamists"  should  be  proved  such  before  they  were  ousted. 
So  argued  the  leaders  of  the  People's  Party.  Not  so  the 
Liberal  leaders.  They  looked  upon  the  proposed  action  as  an 
attempt  to  nullify  an  Act  of  Congress. 

In  the  Courts — The  Douglas-Clayton  Hearing. — The  Gov- 
ernor was  quite  as  determined  as  were  his  opponents,  and  the 
matter  went  into  the  courts.  The  first  cases  docketed  in  the 
Third  Judicial  District  were  those  of  the  Territorial  Auditor, 
Nephi  W.  Clayton,  and  the  Sheriff  of  Salt  Lake  County,  Theo- 
dore McKean ;  the  former  a  monogamist,  the  latter  a  polyg- 
amist.  Peremptory  writs  of  mandate  to  compel  them  to  vacate 
their  offices  in  favor  of  the  Governor's  appointees,  George  C. 
L^ouglas  and  Arthur  Pratt,  were  applied  for,  and  a  hearing 
took  place  before  Chief  Justice  Hunter. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  the  cases  of  the  Auditor  and  the 
Sheriff  should  be  argued  together,  or  rather,  that  the  issue  in 
the  Douglas-Clayton  case  should  also  decide  the  Pratt-McKean 
controversy.  There  was  a  formidable  array  of  counsel  on 
either  side,  such  names  as  Samuel  A.  Merritt,  Idaho's  former 
Delegate  in  Congress,  and  William  H.  Dickson,  Utah's  future 
District  Attorney,  looming  up  conspicuously.  Mr.  Dickson 
had  lately  come  from  Nevada.  He  and  Thomas  Marshall  rep- 
resented the  relators,  Douglas  and  Pratt,  while  Mr.  Merritt 
and  Joseph  L.  Rawlins  appeared  for  the  respondents,  Clayton 
and  McKean.  Mr.  Rawlins  was  a  native  son  of  Utah.  During 
the  proceedings  the  commission  of  the  Territorial  Auditor  was 
presented — a  document  signed  by  Governor  Murray  in  Novem- 
ber, 1880,  authorizing  Mr.  Clayton  to  hold  that  office  for  the 
term  prescribed  by  law  and  until  his  successor  was  elected  and 
qualified.  The  term  of  office — two  years — would  not  expire 
until  the  27th  of  November,  and  it  was  now  the  llth  of  Octo- 
ber. A  demurrer  was  interposed  by  the  respondents,  denying 
the  Court's  jurisdiction  to  hear  or  determine  the  matter  in  con- 
troversy on  a  writ  of  mandate;  it  being  contended  that  quo 
warranto  was  the  proper  process  for  trying  the  title  to  an 
office.  A  motion  for  dismissal  was  therefore  made. 

Judge  Hunter,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  arguments,  took 
the  matter  under  advisement,  and  on  the  30th  of  October  ren- 
dered a  decision,  sustaining  the  demurrer,  and  denying  the 
writs  applied  for.  One  ground  of  the  ruling  was  that  nothing 
in  the  pleadings  went  to  show  that  Messrs.  Douglas  and  Pratt 
had  filed  their  bonds  or  taken  the  oath  of  office  as  Auditor  and 
Sheriff.  The  attorneys  for  these  gentlemen  took  time  to  con- 
sider whether  to  amend  their  application,  or  appeal  from  the 
decision  of  the  Court. 

The  Kimball-Richards  Case. — Meantime  a  similar  suit  had 


TIIK   UTAH  COMMISSION. 


351 


been  instituted  at  Ogden,  which  city  shared  with  Provo  the 
distinction  of  being  the  seat  of  the  First  District  Court;  its 
presiding  magistrate  holding  alternate  sessions  at  both  places. 
The  plaintiff  in  the  Ogden  suit  was  James  N.  Kimball,  whom 
Governor  Murray  had  appointed  Probate  Judge  of  Weber 
County.  The  incumbent  was  Franklin  D.  Richards,  who  had 
held  the  office  by  election  for  several  consecutive  terms.  He 
was  one  of  those  "understood  to  be  a  polygamist."  Judge 
Emerson's  decision  in  the  Kimball-Richards  case  was  dia- 
metrically opposite  to  that  of  • 
Judge  Hunter  in  the  other  ac- 
tion, partly  owing,  perhaps,  to 
the  marital  status  of  Mr. 
Richards.  Emerson  authorized 
a  peremptory  writ  of  mandate, 
requiring  the  incumbent  to  va- 
cate forthwith.  Subsequently, 
however,  he  granted  a  stay  of 
proceedings,  and  the  matter 
went  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Utah,  where  the  decision  of 
the  District  Court  was  affirmed. 
An  appeal  was  then  taken  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  Before  the  case 
could  be  finally  adjudicated, 
the  eight  months  for  which  Mr. 
Kimball  was  appointed  had  ex- 
pired, and  the  suit  was  compro- 
mised and  withdrawn.  Conse- 
quently the  question  at  issue 
was  not  passed  upon  by  the 
Court  of  Last  Resort. 

In  Salt  Lake  County,  and 

in  other  parts  of  the  Territory  matters  had  come  to  a  stand- 
still, awaiting  the  issue  in  the  Weber  County  case.  Proceed- 
ings were  not  pressed  by  the  Governor's  appointees,  and  the 
incumbents  remained  in  office  until  their  successors  were 
elected  and  qualified. 

The  Governor  and  the  Legislature. — Several  months  be- 
fore the  passage  of  the  Hoar  Amendment,  a  controversy  had 
arisen  between  Governor  Murray  and  the  Legislature,  over  the 
appointive  power  claimed  by  .the  former,  but  denied  by  the 
latter,  respecting  certain  Territorial  officers.  The  contention 
involved  the  scope  and  meaning  of  a  clause  in  Section  Seven 
of  the  Organic  Act  reading  as  follows :  "The  Governor  shall 
nominate,  and,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Leg- 


FR. \NKMX   I).   RICHARDS. 


352      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

islative  Council,  appoint  all  officers  not  herein  otherwise  pro- 
vided for."  Basing  his  claim  upon  this  clause,  Governor  Mur- 
ray maintained  that  it  was  his  right  to  appoint,  among  other 
officers,  the  Auditor  and  Treasurer  of  the  Territory,  and  that 
they  could  not  legally  be  chosen  by  the  method  then  in  vogue, 
namely,  election  by  the  people. 

Governor  Harding  had  made  a  similar  claim  in  1862,  at 
which  time  those  officers  were  chosen  by  the  joint  vote  of  the 
Legislative  Assembly.  Governor  Shaffer  in  1870  tried  to 
supersede  Auditor  William  Clayton,  who  had  been  elected  by 
the  Legislature  and  commissioned  by  Acting  Governor  Mann. 
Shaffer  appointed  G.  W.  Bostwick  in  Clayton's  stead,  but  the 
latter  refused  to  surrender  the  office,  and  Attorney  General 
Snow,  the  legal  adviser  of  the  Territory,  sustained  him  in  that 
attitude.  Matters  remained  as  they  were  until  1878,  when  the 
Legislature  enacted  a  law,  which  Governor  Emery  approved, 
making  the  Auditor  and  Treasurer  elective  by  the  people. 

Nominations  Rejected — A  Retaliative  Veto. — Governor 
Murray,  on  the  9th  of  March,  1882,  nominated  a  score  or  more 
of  persons  to  public  office,  including  the  Territorial  Auditor, 
Treasurer,  and  Librarian,  the  Superintendent  of  District 
Schools,  and  the  Chancellor  and  Regents  of  the  University  of 
Deseret.  These  nominations  were  sent  for  confirmation  to  the 
Legislative  Council,  which  body,  after  hearing  the  Governor's 
communication,  adopted  resolutions  to  the  effect  that  those 
offices,  under  local  laws  enacted  at  different  times,  had  been 
made  elective  by  the  people  or  their  representatives,  and  that 
these  laws,  having  been  submitted  to,  and  not  disapproved  by, 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  were  in  full  force  and  effect. 
Moreover,  the  Council  held  that  the  several  Executives  of  the 
Territory,  by  approving  such  measures,  had  relinquished  any 
right  that  the  Governor  might  previously  have  possessed,  to 
fill  the  places  by  appointment.  It  was  therefore  resolved  that 
Governor  Murray's  nominations  were  unnecessary,  and  that  no 
action  thereon  was  required. 

That  the  Governor  was  right  in  his  view  of  the  case, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  afterwards  decided. 
Without  waiting  for  that  high  vindication,  however,  Murray 
retaliated  upon  the  local  law  makers  by  vetoing  several  im- 
portant measures  passed  by  the  Legislature  and  presented  to 
him  for  his  signature.  Among  these  was  a  bill  for  an  appro- 
priation to  the  University. 

The  University  Crippled. — The  University  of  Deseret, 
after  a  lapse  of  thirty-two  years  since  the  granting  of  its  char- 
ter by  the  Provisional  Government,  was  still  without  a  per- 
manent home.  After  occupying  for  several  seasons  the  old 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION. 


353 


Council  House,  the  "Parent  School"  had  taken  up  its  abode  in 
a  weather-beaten  though  substantial  adobe  structure  once 
known  as  "The  Union  Academy,"  and  at  an  earlier  period 
"The  Union  Hotel,"  taking  its  name  from  Union  Square,  a 
vacant  block  near  by,  containing  ten  acres  of  cultivated  ground, 
originally  designed  for  a  public  park.  This  valuable  site  had 
been  given  to  the  University  by  Salt  Lake  City,  and  the  Legis- 
lature had  made  an  appropriation  toward  the  erection  of  suit- 
able buildings  thereon.  The  main  edifice,  begun  in  1881,  was 
nearing  completion,  and  the  Chancellor  and  Regents,  in  the 
prospect  of  an  additional  appropriation,  were  congratulating 


UNION    SOl'ARI-:    CXIVEKSITY    BUILDING. 

Now  (1916)  Salt  Lake  City  West  Side  High  School. 

themselves  upon  the  fair  outlook  before  the  institution,  when 
their  hopes  were  dashed  by  the  act  of  Utah's  Executive. 

Private  Means  to  the  Rescue. — The  amount  proposed  for 
the  University  in  1882  was  fifty-five  thousand  dollars.  The 
greater  part  of  it — forty  thousand  dollars — was  to  complete 
the  new  building,  while  the  remainder  was  to  pay  the  running- 
expenses  of  the  institution  and  the  tuition  of  eighty  normal 
students,  future  teachers  in  the  district  schools.  The  Gov- 
ernor's veto  that  year,  supplemented  by  a  like  action  two  years 
later,  was  regarded  by  the  students  and  the  alumni  as  a  cruel 
blow  at  their  struggling  Alma  Mater.  But  the  full  force  of  the 

22 


354      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

blow  was  not  allowed  to  fall.  A  number  of  well-to-do  citizens 
("Mormons"),  some  of  them  Regents  of  the  University,  came 
forward  with  their  private  means,  advancing  a  considerable 
sum  so  that  work  could  be  prosecuted  upon  the  unfinished 
walls.  These  gentlemen  were  reimbursed  by  a  subsequent 
Legislative  appropriation,  but  not  until  six  years  had  passed 
and  Governor  Murray  was  no  longer  in  office. 

Measures  Approved. — Among  the  measures  approved  by 
the  Executive  in  1882  was  one  establishing  a  Territorial 
Asylum  for  the  Insane.  The  law  creating  this  institution 
made  the  Governor  ex-officio  chairman  of  its  board  of  direc- 
tors, and  appropriated  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars 
toward  the  erection  of  its  buildings  at  Provo.  At  the  same 


TERRITORIAL   ASYLUM    FOR   THE    INSANE. 
Now  State  Mental  Hospital. 

session  of  the  Legislature,  Garfield  County  was  created  out  of 
a  portion  of  Iron  County;  an  act  of  respect  toward  the  memory 
of  the  martyred  President. 

Statehood  Again  Denied. — In  February  of  that  year,  under 
authority  of  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Legislative  Assembly, 
the  people  in  their  respective  precincts  selected  delegates  to 
choose  the  members  of  a  Constitutional  Convention,  prepar- 
atory to  another  application  for  Statehood.  The  Convention 
was  organized  at  Salt  Lake  City,  with  Joseph  F.  Smith  as 
President.  Several  of  the  delegates  were  "Gentiles,"  and  a 
number  of  women  were  also  among  the  members.  Regular 
meetings  were  held  from  the  10th  to  the  27th  of  April.  For 
the  first  time,  "Deseret"  was  dropped  and  "Utah"  substituted, 
as  the  name  of  the  proposed  State.  With  this  exception,  the 
proceedings  did  not  vary  much  from  those  of  former  gather- 
ings of  like  character.  Nor  was  the  result  any  different ;  ad- 
mission into  the  Union  being  again  denied. 

Joint  Celebrations. — During  the  summer  local  ascerbities 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION. 


355 


were  sufficiently  in  abeyance  to  admit  of  two  public  celebra- 
tions in  which  "Gentiles"  and  "Mprmons"  jointly  participated. 
One  was  at  the  opening-  of  Liberty  Park  on  June  17th,  the  an- 
niversary of  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  The  other  was  the 
usual  observance  of  Independence  Day.  On  the  former  occa- 
sion Professor  T.  B.  Lewis  was  the  appointed  orator,  and 
speeches  were  also  made  by  Governor  Murray,  General  Wells, 
General  A.  McDowell  McCook  (successor  to  General  Smith 
at  Fort  Douglas),  Elder  Wilford  Woodruff,  and  Mayor  Wil- 
liam Jennings ;  the  last-named  acting  as  master  of  ceremonies. 
On  July  4th,  when  the  exercises  were  also  held  at  Liberty 
Park,  Governor  Murray  presided,  and  Professor  Lewis  read 
the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence; District  Attorney  Van 
Zile  delivering  the  oration.  A 
choice  number  on  the  program 
was  an  original  poem  by  Jud°:e 
C.  C.  Goodwin,  editor  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Tribune,  a  splendid 
writer  both  in  verse  and  prose. * 
The  gifted  soprano,  Mrs.  La- 
vinia  Careless,  sang  the  "Star- 
Spangled  Banner,"  and  brief 
speeches  followed  from  other 
citizens.  Croxall's  Band,  the 
Fort  Douglas  Band,  and  the 
Union  Glee  Club  furnished  the 
music.  The  opening  and  clos- 
ing prayers  were  by  Reverend 
R.  G.  McNiece,  Presbyterian 
minister,  and  Elder  George  G. 
Bywater,  a  prominent  "Mor- 


JUDGE  GOODWIN, 


mon.' 


Phil  Robinson — "Sinners  and  Saints." — Among  the  vis- 
itors to  Utah  that  year,  was  Mr.  Phil  Robinson,  an  English 
journalist  and  author,  who  had  won  repute  during  the  first 
Boer  troubles  in  South  Africa,  as  war  correspondent  for  the 

*A  native  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Judge  Goodwin,  prior  to 
coming  to  Utah  in  1880,  had  been  for  twenty  years  a  resident  of 
Nevada,  where  he  was  Judge  of  the  Second  District  Court  at  Washoe. 
Drifting  into  journalism,  he  edited  successively  "The  Inland  Empire" 
and  "The  Virginia  City  Enterprise."  Upon  his  arrival  in  this  Terri- 
tory, he  went  to  mining  in  the  old  Lincoln  District,  Beaver  County, 
but  ere  long  accepted  the  proffered  position  of  chief  editor  of  the 
Tribune,  having  for  associates  Mr.  P.  H.  Lannan,  business  manager, 
and  Ex-U.  S.  Marshal  Nelson,  managing  editor.  Prior  to  'Judge 
Goodwin's  advent,  Mr.  Fred  Lockley,  a  Kansas  journalist,  with  Messrs. 
Prescott  and  Hamilton,  also  from  that  State,  had  conducted  the  paper. 


356      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

London  "Daily  Telegraph."  Coming  to  America  on  business 
connected  with  the  publication  of  one  of  his  books,  he  met 
Mr.  William  H.  Hurlburt,  proprietor  of  •  "The  New  York 
World,"  and  was  commissioned  by  him  to  proceed  West  and 
inquire  into  the  "Mormon"  and  Chinese  questions,  the  former 
in  Utah,  the  latter  in  California,  and  give  his  views  thereon  to 
the  readers  of  that  journal.  Mr.  Robinson  remained  several 
months,  traversing  the  Territory  from  Bear  Lake  on  the  North 
to  Long  Valley  in  the  South,  visiting  various  towns  and  settle- 
ments, mingling  with  the  people  in  public  and  private,  and 
studying  with  the  eye  of  an  experienced  traveler  and  sociolo- 
gist the  "Mormon  Problem."  The  result  was  the  fairest  set- 
ting forth  of  the  subject  that  has  yet  emanated  from  a  non- 
"Mormon"  pen.  The  World  letters  were  widely  read,  and 
doubtless  did  much  to  allay  prejudice  against  Utah.  These 
letters  were  afterwards  published  in  book  form,  under  the 
title  "Sinners  and  Saints."* 

Character  of  the  Commissioners. — Next  came  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Utah  Commission,  mentioned  by  name  at  the  be- 
ginning of  this  Chapter.  They  were  men  of  prominence  and 
repute.  All  had  been  practicing  lawyers,  and  Commissioners 
Ramsey  and  Paddock  had  sat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  The  former,  who  was  Chairman  of  the  Board,  had 
also  been  Governor  of  Minnesota,  and  subsequently  Secretary 
of  War  under  President  Hayes,  with  whom,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, he  visited  Utah  in  September,  1880.  He  was  a  kindly 
disposed  elderly  gentleman,  brimming  with  good  nature,  and 
without  prejudice  against  the  people  among  whom  he  came. 
Mr.  Carlton,  equally  unbiased,  afterwards  wrote  and  pub- 
lished a  book  entitled  "The  Wonderlands  of  the  Wild  West," 
giving  his  experience  of  seven  years  as  a  member  of  the  Utah 
Commission. 

Chairman  Ramsey  and  the  Omaha  Herald. — The  five  gen- 
tlemen, while  traveling  toward  their  destination,  had  come 
together  in  Nebraska.  A  reporter  of  the  Omaha  Herald — 
then  edited  by  Dr.  Miller,  a  valiant  friend  to  Utah — interviewed 
Chairman  Ramsey  on  the  subject  of  the  Edmunds  Law,  with 
the  following  result: 

"How  do  you  expect,  Mr.  Ramsey,  this  will  be  met  by  the 
Mormons?" 

"I  think  they  will  accept  the  ruling  of  the  law.  If  they 
do  not,  they  will  simply  make  a  judicial  question  of  it  and 
carry  it  up  from  court  to  court." 

*Mr.  Robinson  was  again  in  Utah,  lecturing,  early  in  1883.  He 
was  then  accompanied  by  the  eminent  English  barrister,  Sergeant 
Ballantyne. 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION.  357 

"You  do  not  expect  any  trouble,  then, — any  resistance  at 
elections  by  force?" 

"Oh,  no.  They  are  too  sensible  out  there  to  attempt  any- 
thing of  that  kind  in  the  face  of  the  Nation.  They  know  now 
what  the  law  requires,  and  they  will  not  wilfully  attempt  to 
evade  it." 

"How  will  the  Commission  prove  that  these  men  are  mar- 
ried, and  how  much  they  are  married?" 

"I  cannot  say,"  answered  the  Governor,  laughing,  "how 
we  will  get  at  that.  They  are  honest ;  perhaps  they  will  con- 
fess. Now  wouldn't  you  confess?" 

"The  reporter  protested  that  he  had  never  been  in  a  posi- 
tion to  realize  such  a  situation.  "The  Commission  has  no 
power,  has  it,  to  investigate  the  records  of  the  Endowment 
House?" 

"None  at  all,  sir,"  replied  Mr.  Ramsey;  "we  must  simply 
rely  on  what  we  can  ourselves  discover." 

"Can  the  Delegate  to  Congress,  elected  this  fall  under  such 
circumstances,  be  a  Mormon?" 

"He  may  be  a  Mormon,  but  not  a  polygamist.  Why,  not 
over  ten  per  cent  of  the  Mormons  are  polygamists.*  We 
don't  care  how  many  Mormons  vote ;  we  cannot  interfere  with 
their  religion;  but  they  must  not  be  polygamists  if  they  want 
to  vote." 

"But  do  you  expect  that  one  of  those  much  married  men 
will  sacrifice  his  wives  for  his  franchise?" 

"Young  man,"  answered  the  jolly  chairman,  "would  you?" 

In  Honor  of  the  Commissioners. — Deputations  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  including  Governor  Murray,  Mayor  Jennings,  and 
other  leading  citizens,  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles,"  met  the 
Commissioners  at  Ogden  and  escorted  them  to  Salt  Lake  City. 
Here  a  public  reception  was  given  in  their  honor  at  the  newly 
opened  Walker  Opera  House,  on  Second  South  Street.  "All 
seemed  lovely" — thus  Carlton  in  his  book — "and  reminded 
one  of  the  lion  and  the  lamb  and  the  harmless  cockatrice  and 
all  that;  but,  as  we  more  than  suspected  at  the  time,  it  was 
only  'the  torrent's  smoothness  ere  it  dash  below.' ' 

A  Difficult  Situation. — Chairman  Ramsey,  out  of  his  pre- 
vious experience  as  a  visitor  to  Utah,  had  informed  his  col- 
leagues that  in  the  discharge  of  their  official  duties  they  would 
be  "between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea."  "What  he  meant  by 
this,"  says  the  author  of  the  "Wonderlands,"  "began  to  dawn 
on  us  very  soon  after  our  arrival,  and  was  fully  confirmed  by 
the  sequel.  In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  known  that  there 

*Not  more  than  three  per  cent  of  the  male  members  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  at  any  time  had  plural  wives. 


358      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

was  an  intense  feeling  of  hostility  between  the  Mormons  and 
a  portion  of  the  Gentiles.  The  latter  charged  the  Mormons 
with  being  disloyal  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
and  with  all  manner  of  crimes  and  immoralities;  while  the 
Mormons  charged  that  those  Gentiles  who  were  making  Avar 
upon  them  were  a  predatory  band  of  adventurers  and  carpet- 
baggers, actuated  by  no  higher  motive  than  to  oppress  the 
Mormons,  with  a  view  to  driving  them  to  desperation,  so  as 
to  steal  the  Mormon  property.  The  daily  newspapers  in  Salt 
Lake  City,  two  on  the  Gentile  side,  and  two  on  the  Mormon 
side,  were  doing  their  part  in  fanning  the  flames  of  discord. 
Such  was  the  community  to  which  the  Commission  was  sent; 
the  Mormons  expecting  the  Commission  to  deal  harshly  with 
them  under  a  law  of  Congress  which  they  declared  to  be  cruel 
and  unconstitutional ;  while  on  the  other  hand  a  portion  of  the 
Gentiles — the  most  active  and  demonstrative  among  them — 
seemed  to  act  on  the  theory  that  a  Mormon  had  no  rights 
which  others  .were  bound  to  respect."  "The  Edmunds  Law 
went  too  far  to  please  the  Mormons,  but  did  not  go  far  enough 
to  please  the  ultra  Gentiles."  Mr.  Carlton  also  states  that 
some  disappointment  was  felt  because  the  President  had  se- 
lected all  the  Commissioners  from  places  outside  of  Utah, 
rejecting  nominations  telegraphed  from  Salt  Lake  City  by 
Governor  Murray. 

Duties  of  the  Board. — The  Commissioners  were  indeed 
between  two  fires,  and  one  or  the  other  scorched  them,  either 
way  they  turned.  Like  all  officials  similarly  placed,  they  were 
"sailing  between  Scylla  and  Charybdis,"  and  if  they  avoided 
the  rock  it  was  only  to  be  menaced  by  the  whirlpool.  Their 
duties,  as  defined  in  the  Edmunds  Law,  were  as  follows : 

First :  To  appoint  officers  to  perform  each  and  every 
duty  relating  to  the  registration  of  voters,  the  conduct  of  elec- 
tions, the  receiving  or  rejection  of  votes,  the  canvassing  and 
returning  of  the  same,  and  the  issuing  of  certificates  or  other 
evidence  of  election. 

Second :  To  canvass  the  returns  of  all  votes  cast  at  elec- 
tions for  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  issue  certificates  of 
election  to  those  persons  who,  being  eligible  for  such  election, 
should  appear  to  have  been  lawfully  elected. 

Third :  To  continue  in  office  until  the  Legislative  Assem- 
bly, so  elected  and  qualified,  should  make  provisions  for  filling 
the  offices  vacated  by  the  Act  of  Congress. 

Initial  Obstacles. — In  their  first  report  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  dated  about  two  weeks  after  their  arrival  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  the  Commissioners  referred  to  "many  embarrass- 
ments and  complications,"  encountered  while  seeking  to  carry 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION.  359 

out  the  provisions  of  the  Edmunds  Law;  the  main  difficulty 
being  to  make  that  statute  conform  to  the  Territorial  laws  re- 
lating to  elections.  According  to  Mr.  Carlton,  the  leaders  of 
the  Liberal  Party  were  averse  to  holding  an  election  for  Dele- 
gate to  Congress,  which  must  inevitably  result  in  their  defeat, 
and  did  all  in  their  power  to  convince  the  Commissioners  that 
it  could  not  legally  be  done.  But  the  latter  thought  other- 
wise, and  forthwith  appointed  the  necessary  officers  to  revise 
the  registration  lists  and  conduct  the  election. 

Registration  and  Test  Oath. — Most  of  the  County  Regis- 
trars, twenty-four  in  number,  were  selected  from  the  ranks  of 
the  Liberal  Party.  Deputy  Registrars  were  also  appointed, 
one  for  each  precinct.  All  were  to  hold  their  places  during 
the  pleasure  of  the  Board  that  appointed  them.  The  Commis- 
sioners published  rules  for  the  guidance  of  registrars  and  the 
government  of  judges  of  election.  They  also  formulated  the 
following  test  oath,  to  be  taken  by  voters  prior  to  registration : 

County  of ) 

Territory  of  Utah,  J  ss' 

I, ,  being  first  duly  sworn  (or 

affirmed),  depose  and  say  that  I  am  over  twenty-one  years  of 
age,  and  have  resided  in  the  Territory  of  Utah  for  six  months, 
and  in  the  precinct  of one  month  imme- 
diately preceding  the  date  hereof,  and  (if  a  male)  am  a  native 
born  or  naturalized  (as  the  case  may  be)  citizen  of  the  United 
States  and  a  taxpayer  in  this  Territory,  or  (if  a  female),  I  am 
native  born,  or  naturalized,  or  the  wife,  widow  or  daughter  (as 
the  case  may  be)  of  a  native  born  or  naturalized  citizen  of  the 
United  States ;  and  I  do  further  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm) 
that  I  am  not  a  bigamist  or  a  polygamist;  that  I  am  not  a 
violator  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  prohibiting  bigamy 
or  polygamy ;  that  I  do  not  live  or  cohabit  with  more  than  one 
woman  in  the  marriage  relation,  nor  does  any  relation  exist 
between  me  and  any  woman  which  has  been  entered  into  or 
continued  in  violation  of  the  said  laws  of  the  United  States 
prohibiting  bigamy  or  polygamy ;  and  (if  a  woman)  that  I  am 
not  the  wife  of  a  polygamist,  nor  have  I  entered  into  any  rela- 
tion with  any  man  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
concerning  polygamy  or  bigamy. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  before  me  this day  of , 

1882. 


Registration  Officer  . Precinct. 

An  Objectionable  Feature. — The  adoption  of  some  plan 
whereby   to   purge   the   registration   lists   from    names   whose 


360      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

owners  were  disqualified  to  vote,  had  been  expected ;  and  in 
view  of  the  ambiguity  of  the  Edmunds  Law  it  was  thought 
very  probable  that  some  latitude  would  be  taken  by  those 
whose  duty  it  was  to  interpret  it.  The  institution  of  a  test 
oath,  therefore,  was  not  surprising.  But  a  part  of  the  oath, 
as  formulated,  was  not  only  surprising — it  was  shocking.  Ref- 
erence is  had  to  that  part  requiring  the  applicant  for  registra- 
tion to  swear  or  affirm  that  he  did  not  "live  or  cohabit  with 
more  than  one  woman  in  the  marriage  relation."  The  words 
here  italicized  were  not  in  the  Edmunds  Law,  nor  in  any  other 
law  relating  to  Utah ;  but  were  an  interpolation  by  the  Com- 
missioners, who  had  copied  part  of  an  oath  required  from 
notaries  .public  by  Governor  Murray. 

Critical  Comments.— The  Deseret  News,  commenting 
upon  the  objectionable  clause  in  the  test  oath,  showed  that  its 
effect  would  be  to  exclude  from  the  registration  lists,  and 
consequently  from  the  polls,  the  man  who  had  married  two  or 
more  wives  and  lived  with  them  in  that  relation,  and  would 
also  exclude  in  like  manner  the  wives  of  such  a  man;  while  it 
would  let  in  the  libertine  and  the  harlot,  however  vile  and  pol- 
luted. The  same  paper  pointed  out  that  the  oath  to  be  taken 
by  registration  officers  did  not  include  the  cohabitation  clause 
at  all.  They  had  simply  to  swear  that  they  were  not  biga- 
mists or  polygamists,  and  yet  could  strike  from  the  voting- 
lists  the  names  of  those  who  failed  to  subscribe  to  the  test 
oath  in  all  its  parts.  These  objections  were  met  by  the  asser- 
tion that  the  Edmunds  Law  was  aimed  only  at  the  "Mormons" 
and  their  institutions — not  at  the  immoralities  of  the  "Gen- 
tiles." 

Views  of  the  First  Presidency. — The  First  Presidency  of 
the  Church,  in  an  address  to  the  Latter-day  Saints,  dated 
August  29,  1882,  referred  to  the  attitude  of  the  Commissioners, 
and  expressed  regret  that  men  of  high  positions  and  honored 
names  would  take  that  view  of  the  law"  and  frame  such  an  oath 
to  be  administered  to  the  people.  At  the  same  time  it  was 
"with  unmixed  satisfaction"  that  they  perceived  how  sharply 
and  distinctly  the  oath  drew  the  line  between  marriage  and 
licentiousness.  They  advised  their  Church  members,  such  as 
could  truthfully  take  the  oath,  to  do  so,  in  order  that  religious 
liberty  and  free  republican  government  might  be  maintained, 
entreating  them  not  to  allow  their  rights  to  be  wrested  from 
them  through  supineness.  indifference,  or  any  feeling  of  resent- 
ment or  indignation  on  their  part.  They  further  advised  that 
the  suggestions  made  from  time  to  time  by  the  Territorial  Cen- 
tral Committee  of  the  People's  Party  be  faithfully  carried  out. 

"Once  a  Polygamist,  Always  a  Polygamist." — The  Com- 
mission next  prohibited  the  registration  of  any  person  who  at 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION. 


361 


any  time  since  the  passage  of  the  Anti-Bigamy  Law,  had  lived 
in  bigamous  or  polygamous  relations.  This  ruling  was  in  re- 
sponse to  a  question  submitted  by  the  registrar  of  Juab  Coun- 
ty, who  desired  to  know  if  men  who  had  once  married  plural 
wives  but  were  not  then  living  with  them  could  be  registered 
as  voters.  The  decision  denying  them  that  privilege  was  an- 
other surprise  to  the  public.  It  disfranchised  men  and  women 
in  the  "Mormon"  Church  who,  on  account  of  the  death  of  hus- 
band or  wife  or  for  some  other  cause,  had  ceased  their  plural 
relations,  and  also  deprived  of  the  suffrage  men  and  women 
who  did  not  then  belong  to  the  Church,  but  while  connected 
with  it  in  former  years  had  lived  in  polygamy,  though  they  had  not 
practiced  it  since  their  defection  from  "Mormonism."  "Once 
a  polygamist  always  a  polyga- 
mist,"  was  the  ground  taken  by 
the  Commissioners. 

An  Untenable  Position. — 
That  it  was  untenable  ground, 
the  sequel  showed.  In  the  first 
place  it  was  clearly  outside  the 
intent  of  .  the  Edmunds  Law, 
which  was  designed  to  discour- 
age and  suppress  the  practice 
of  polygamy,  not  to  punish 
those  who  had  abandoned  the 
practice  and  were  living  within 
the  law.  Next,  it  was  impossi- 
ble, without  making  the  law 
retroactive,  to  reach  the  cases 
of  many  persons  affected  by 
the  Commission's  ruling.  The 
case  of  William  Jennings, 
Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City,  was 
one  in  point.  He  had  been  a 
polygamist,  but  had  broken 
neither  the  Anti-Bigamy  Law 
of  1862,  aimed  at  the  ceremony 
of  plural  marriage  without  reference  to  cohabitation,  nor  the 
Anti-Polygamy  Law  of  1882,  by  which  the  ceremony  and  the 
cohabitation  were  both  made  punishable.  He  had  had  two 
wives,  but  had  married  them  before  the  year  1862 ;  therefore 
his  marriages  did  not  violate  the  earlier  law,  which  was  not 
retroactive.  His  first  wife  dying  in  1871,  eleven  years  before 
the  Edmunds  Law  was  enacted,  he  had  since  lived  with  but 
one  wife,  and  consequently  could  have  taken  the  test  oath  with 
perfect  propriety.  The  Registrar,  however,  under  the  ruling 
of  the  Commission,  rejected  him. 


MAYOR    JENNINGS. 


362      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


The  doctrine,  "once  a  polygamist  always  a  polygamist," 
did  not  give  much  satisfaction  to  any  class.  It  was  a  two- 
edged  sword,  cutting  both  ways,  and  was  generally  regarded 
as  unjust.  A  son  of  President  Brigham  Young,  not  then  con- 
nected with  the  Church  over  which  his  father  had  presided, 
having  been  offered  the  appointment  of  Deputy  Registrar  for 
the  Fourth  Precinct  of  Salt  Lake  City,  declined  it  because  un- 
willing to  take  part  in  the  disfranchisement  of  persons  who 
were  not  living  in  violation  of  law.  Had  he  accepted  the  ap- 
pointment, he  would  have  been  required  to  disfranchise  his 
own  mother,  one  of  the  widows  of  President  Young. 

Murphy  Versus  Ramsey. — A  test  case  that  was  destined 
to  call  forth  a  decision  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  reversing  this  ruling  of  the  Commission,  was  instituted 
in  the  autumn  of  1882.  The  abbreviated  title  of  the  action  was 
Murphy  versus  Ramsey.  The  plaintiffs,  Jesse  J.  Murphy, 
Mary  Ann  Pratt,  Mildred  E.  Randall,  Alfred  Randall,  Ellen  C. 
Clawson,  Hiram  B.  Clawson,  and  James  M.  Barlow,  had  all 
been  refused  registration  by  deputy  registrars  in  Salt  Lake 
County,  and  these  officers,  with  the  County  Registrar  and  the 
members  of  the  Utah  Commission,  were  made  defendants  in 
a  suit  for  damages. 

Woman's  Suffrage  Assailed. — The  elimination  of  polyga- 

mists  from  the  voting  ranks  did 
not  materially  diminish  the 
strength  of  the  People's  Party, 
which  still  had  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority  over  their  political 
opponents.  The  latter,  hoping 
to  lessen  that  majority  yet 
further,  next  assailed  the  Wom- 
an's Suffrage  Act.'  The  Utah 
Commission  having  refused  to 
declare  the  act  invalid,  the  Fed- 
eral Courts  were  appealed  to ; 
test  cases  being  instituted  in 
the  three  Judicial  Districts. 
Judges  Hunter,  Emerson  and 
Twiss  all  ruled  in  favor  of  the 
statute. 

This  was  not  the  first  at- 
tempt made  by  the  managers  of 
the  Liberal  Party  to  prevent 
the  women  of  Utah  from  exer- 
cising- the  franchise  conferred 
upon  them  by  the  Legislature, 
under  the  approval  of  the  Act- 


I-.M  MKL1NK    I'..    WELLS. 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION.  363  . 

ing  Governor,  in  1870.  During  the  political  campaign  of  1880 
proceedings  in  mandamus  had  been  instituted  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Territory,  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  the  Reg- 
istrar of  Salt  Lake  County,  R.  T.  Burton,  to  strike  from  the 
County  voting  list  the  names  of  Mrs.  Emmeline  B.  Wells 
("Mormon"),  Mrs.  A.  G.  Paddock  ("Gentile"),  and.  all  other 
women  whose  names  appeared  upon  that  list.  But  the  Court 
refused  to  compel  the  Registrar  to  undo  what  the  law  had 
required  him  to  do,  and  consequently  the  women  retained 
the  ballot.* 

Caine  Defeats  Van  Zile.— The  Delegate  election  in  1882 
was  preceded  by  a  campaign  in  which  political  parades,  with  all 
the  paraphernalia  of  torches,  transparencies  and  pyrotechnics, 
were  seen  for  the  first  time  in  Utah.  Each  party  put  forth  its 
utmost  exertions,  and  the  issue  was  decided  on  the  7th  of 
November,  when  John  T.  Caine,  the  People's  candidate, 
was  chosen  Delegate  to  Congress,  over  Phillip  T.  Van  Zile, 
the  candidate  of  the  Liberals.  The  former  received  23,039 
votes ;  the  latter,  4,884.  All  during  the  campaign  Mr.  Van  Zile 
had  sought  to  impress  upon  the  public  mind  the  idea  that  his 
victory  meant  Statehood  for  Utah,  while  his  defeat  signified  a 
Legislative  Commission.  The  answer  of  the  people  was  his 
rejection  at  the  polls.  Mr.  Caine  was  not  only  elected  to 
the  Forty-eighth  Congress,  but  also  to  the  unexpired  portion 
of  Delegate  Cannon's  term  in  the  Forty-seventh  Congress. 

A  Futile  Charge. — Mr.  Van  Zile  charged  the  Delegate- 
elect  with  polygamy,  and  protested  against  the  counting  of  the 
votes  cast  for  him.  Mr.  Caine,  who  was  well  known  to  have 
but  one  wife,  smiled  at  the  charge  and  denied  all  the  allega- 
tions of  his  opponent.  The  Commissioners  allowed  the  can- 
vass to  proceed,  but  subsequently  sent  for  Mr.  Van  Zile  and 


*The  basis  of  the  mandamus  proceedings  was  the  alleged  invalid- 
ity of  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Act.  Two  grounds  were  stated:  (1) 
The  Act  conferring  the  franchise  differed  from  the  Territorial  law 
of  1859,  which  provided  that  voters  should  be  males  and  tax-payers. 
(2)  The  act  of  1870  did  not  require  a  woman  voter  to  be  a  ''citizen" 
in  the  common  acceptance  of  the  term,  it  being  sufficient  if  she  were 
the  wife,  widow  or  daughter  of  a  native  born  or  naturalized  citizen. 
These  "discriminations,"  it  was  contended,  voided  the  enactment. 

The  women  of  Utah  were  loyally  sustained  at  that  juncture  by 
leading  suffrage  women  throughout  the  Nation.  In  the  midst  of  the 
court  proceedings  Belva  A.  Lockwood  telegraphed  from  Washington 
to  Emmeline  B.  Wells  at  Salt  Lake  City:  "Stand  by  your  guns. 
Allow  no  encroachment  upon  your  liberties.  No  mandamus  here." 
The  Woman's  Journal,  of.  Boston,  edited  by  Lucy  Stone,  denounced 
in  scathing  terms  the  "bold  attempt  to  disfranchise  citizens  who  have 
exercised  the  right  to  vote  for  ten  years."  The  Journal  declared  thai 
such  an  attempt  would  never  have  been  made  "if  these  citizens  had 
not  been  Mormons." 


364      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


asked  h'im  if  he  was  prepared  to  prove  the  polygamy  charge. 
He  answered  that  he  was  prepared  to  prove  it  only  on  the 
ground  that  he  presumed  Mr.  Caine  to  be  a  believer  in  plural 
marriage.  The  Commissioners  then  overruled  the  protest,  and 
issued  to  Mr.  Caine  a  certificate  of  election  to  the  Forty-eighth 
Congress.  The  returns  for  the  Forty-seventh  Congress  they 
refused  to  count,  holding  that  there  was  no  law  authorizing 
the  special  election.  Some  of  the  election  judges,  however, 
certified  to  a  list  of  votes  cast  for  Mr.  Caine  in  that  conection, 

and  with  these  certificates  and 
his  other  credentials  the1  Dele- 
gate-elect set  out  for  Wash- 
ington. 

The  Delegate  Admitted.— 
Mr.  Caine's  immediate  object 
was  to  secure  admission  to  the 
unexpired  session  of  Congress, 
which  would  not  end  until 
March  4,  1883.  He  submitted 
his  case  in  December,  and  on 
the  17th  of  January  was  ad- 
mitted to  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  ground 
taken  in  his  favor  was  this: 
While  there  was  no  law  author- 
izing the  special  election,  there 
was  a  national  statute  which 
entitled  each  Territory  to  a 
Delegate  in  Congress ;  and 
since  Congress  had  failed  to 
legislate  to  meet  the  emergen- 
cy, and  the  Governor  of  Utah 
had  refused  to  call  an  election, 

and  the  citizens  of  the  Territory,  by  holding  an  election  with- 
out the  Governor's  authorization,  had  availed  themselves  of 
the  only  way  left  in  which  to  express  their  will ;  therefore  they 
were  entitled  to  the  admission  of  their  Delegate.  Judge  Van 
Zile,  who  had  gone  to  Washington  to  oppose  the  seating  of 
Delegate  Caine,  acquiesced  gracefully  in  his  second  defeat,  and 
congratulated  his  victorious  opponent  on  the  outcome. 

To  Their  Eastern  Homes. — The  members  of  the  Utah 
Commission,  having  completed  their  labors  for  the  season, 
made  another  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  then 
departed  for  their  homes  in  the  East.  While  conscious  of  the 
fact  that  they  had  pleased  neither  "Mormons"  nor  "Gentiles," 
they  felt  that  they  had  used  their  best  judgment  in  the  dim- 
cult  position  they  were  called  upon  to  occupy.  Some  of 


JOHN   T.   CAINE. 


THE  UTAH  COMMISSION.  365 

the  "ultra"  element  had  urged  them  to  recommend  "Congres- 
sional legislation  of  a  radical  character,"  and  Mr.  Paddock  had 
been  won  over  to  the  view  tliat  Utah  should  be  governed  by  a 
Legislative  Commission;  but  this  plan,  it  appears,  was  not  then 
favored  by  any  of  his  associates. 

Carlton  on  His  Critics. — Commissioner  Carlton,  when  he 
published  his  book,  did  not  forget  to  pay  his  respects  to  the 
"Ultras,"  some  of  whom  had  assailed  him  and  his  conservative 
colleagues.  Says  he :  "It  soon  began  to  appear,  as  was  after- 
wards clearly  demonstrated,  that  no  Federal  official  could  re- 
ceive the  commendation  or  avoid  the  venomous  abuse  of  that 
coterie,  except  by  the  most  abject  and  servile  submission  to 
their  dictation."  This  would  indicate  that  the  "Mormons" 
were  not  the  only  ones  who  criticized  Federal  officials.  It  is 
safe  to  say,  however,  that  they  were  the  only  ones  whose 
strictures  upon  public  functionaries  were  construed  as  treason 
and  rebellion  against  the  Government. 

Judge  Black  and  the  Cause  of  the  People. — Utah,  battling 
for  her  rights  under  the  Constitution,  had  a  redoubtable  cham- 
pion in  that  superb  lawyer  and  truly  great  man,  Honorable 
Jeremiah  S.  Black.  In  a  powerful  argument,  delivered  at 
the  City  of  Washington  on  the  29th  of  September,  1882,  he 
pleaded  the  cause  of  the  majority  in  this  Territory  against  the 
Edmunds  Law,  the  Hoar  Amendment,  Governor  Murray,  and 
the  Utah  Commission.  His  address  was  directed  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior,  in  the  absence  of  the  President  and  the 
Attorney  General.  During  the  following  February  the  emi- 
nent jurist  lifted  his  voice  against  the  Edmunds  Law  and  for 
the  right  of  local  self  government  in  the  Territories  before  the 
Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  which 
was  then  considering  another  anti-Utah  measure.  This  was 
only  a  few  months  before  the  death  of  Judge  Black,  which 
occurred  August  19,  1883. 


XXVII. 
AN  APPROACHING  STORM. 

1882-1885. 

The  Anti-Polygamy  Prosecutions. — The  United  States 
Government  was  adamant  in  its  determination  to  stamp  out 
plural  marriage,  and  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints  remained  firm  in  its  adherence  to  that  feature  of  its 
faith.  What  followed  was  inevitable.  Until  the  issuance  of 
"The  Manifesto,"  withdrawing  Church  sanction  from  the  furth- 
er solemnization  of  such  marriages,  a  rigorous  system  of  prose- 
cution was  carried  on  in  Utah,  Idaho  and  Arizona,  wherever 
the  "Mormon"  people  had  founded  settlements.  The  Federal 
courts  were  kept  busy  trying  cases  under  the  Edmunds  Law, 
and  in  Utah  the  Penitentiary  was  crowded  with  persons  con- 
victed under  the  operations  of  that  stern  statute. 

A  Reign  of  Terror. — It  was  a  time  of  terror  and  gloom. 
Men  and  women  were  hunted  like  runaway  slaves  before  the 
Civil  War.  Hundreds  of  people,  including  many  prominent 
citizens,  were  arrested  or  driven  into  exile.  Most  of  the  men 
proceeded  against  were  punished,  not  for  marrying  plural 
wives,  but  for  living  with  those  whom  they  had  wedded  prior 
to  the  enactment  of  the  law  under  which  they  were  prose- 
cuted. The  three  Territories  were  raked  as  with  a  sharp- 
toothed  harrow  and  victims  of  the  raid  agonized  to  an  extent 
almost  unbearable.  W.hen  the  end  came,  none  seemed  more 
grateful  for  it  than  the  judges  and  prosecutors  themselves, 
who  were  heartily  sick  of  the  pain  and  misery  that  had  been 
caused. 

Two  Sides  to  the  Question. — As  might  naturally  be  ex- 
pected, these  officials  were  convinced  that  their  attitude  and 
acts  in  pursuance  of  the  duties  and  obligations  resting  upon 
them,  were  perfectly  just  and  reasonable.  But  those  who 
suffered  from  the  enforcement  of  the  law — a  law  administered, 
as  they  believed,  not  only  with  partiality,  but  at  times  with 
undue  severity,  could  hardly  be  censured  if  they  failed  to  share 
in  that  conviction.  Whatever  the  "Gentiles"  might  think,  or 
whatever  the  Federal  Courts  might  decree,  it  was  a  principle 
of  the  "Mormon"  religion  that  was  assailed,  and  the  men  and 
women  who  went  to  prison  rather  than  prove  recreant  to  cove- 
nants that  they  considered  sacred,  were  well  worthy  of  the 
respect  instinctively  felt  for  them  by  the  best  element  among 
their  opponents. 

Not  in  Rebellion. — The  position  of  the  "Mormon"  people, 
so  much  misunderstood  at  that  time,  should  not  at  this  late 
day  be  misconstrued  and  misrepresented.  The  same  generous 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  367 

spirit  that  accords  to  the  people  of  the  South  sincerity  in  their 
attitude  upon  the  States  Rights  question,  ought  to  be  mani- 
fested toward  the  citizens  of  this  commonwealth,  who,  without 
arming  themselves  against  the  Union,  stood  out  for  their  re- 
ligious convictions,  and  battled  legally  for  their  rights  under 
the  Constitution,  with  the  Stars  and  Stripes  waving  over 
them  through  the  whole  period  of  the  controversy.  It  is  un- 
fair to  say,  as  some  have  said,  that  such  a  people  were  in  re- 
bellion against  the  Government.  They  had  been  placed  in  an 
attitude  of  seeming  antagonism  by  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment itself;  an  attitude  not  of  their  choosing,  and  altogether 
contrary  to  their  inclination.  Simple  justice  demands  that 
their  true  position  be  fairly  stated  and  fully  comprehended. 
"Come  within  the  Law" — a  phrase  much  upon  the  lips  of  those 
who  saw  no  good  reason  why  their  advice  should  not  be 
promptly  acted  upon,  meant  more  to  the  "Mormon"  husband 
and  father  than  his  "Gentile"  neighbor  was  in  a  position  to 
realize.  It  involved  the  severance  of  ties  of  genuine  affection, 
and  proposed  the  dissolution  of  bonds  believed  to  be  eternal. 
The  fact  that  the  "Gentiles"  deemed  it  all  a  delusion,  while 
some  of  them  ridiculed  it  as  such,  did  not  change  matters 
one  iota,  nor  make  the  problem  any  easier  of  solution.  Con- 
viction, not  stubbornness,  stood  in  the  way;  conscience,  not 
contumacy,  was  the  lion  in  the  path. 

President  Taylor  Predicts  "A  Storm."— It  had  long  been 
foreseen  that  the  warring  social  forces  in  Utah  would  sooner 
or  later  bring  a  tempest  of  tribulation  upon  the  Territory. 
Mutterings  of  the  coming  storm  were  heard  before  and 
after  the  enactment  of  the  Edmunds  Law.  Early  in  April, 
1882,  during  the  General  Conference  of  the  Latter-day  Saints, 
the  venerable  head  of  the  Church  made  allusion  to  the  ap- 
proaching trouble.  Half  humorously,  yet  with  serious  intent, 
he  said:  "Let  us  treat  it  as  we  did  the  snow  storm  through 
which  we  came  this  morning — put  up  our  coat  collars,  and  wait 
till  it  passes  by.  After  the  storm  comes  the  sunshine.  While 
the  excitement  lasts,  it  is  useless  to  reason  with  the  world; 
when  it  subsides  we  can  talk  to  them." 

The  "Mormon"  Attitude.— President  Taylor  outlined  the 
position  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  toward  the  Edmunds  Law 
in  these  words :  "We  do  not  wish  to  place  ourselves  in  a  state 
of  antagonism,  nor  act  defiantly,  toward  this  Government.  We 
will  fulfill  the  letter,  so  far  as  practicable,  of  that  unjust,  in- 
human, oppressive,  and  unconstitutional  law.  *  *  *  But 
we  cannot  sacrifice  every  principle  of  human  right.  *  *  * 
While  we  are  God-fearing  and  law-abiding,  and  respect  all 
honorable  men  and  officers,  we  are  no  craven  serfs,  and  have 


368      WHITN'KY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

not  learned  to  lick  the  feet  of  oppressors,  nor  to  bow  in  base 
submission  to  unreasoning  clamor.  We  will  contend,  inch 
by  inch,  legally  and  constitutionally,  for  our  rights  as  Amer- 
ican citizens." 

The  Hosannah  Shout. — On  the  closing  day  of  the  Con- 
ference, President  Taylor  concluded  his  discourse  with  "The 
Hosannah  Shout,"  in  which  he  led  the  vast  congregation,  the 
reverberating  thunders  of  whose  united  voices,  ten  thousand 
strong,  caused  the  great  Tabernacle  to  tremble.  The  shout, 
thrice  given,  was  as  follows:  "Hosannah!  Hosannah!  Hosan- 
nah !  to  God  and  the  Lamb,  for  ever  and  ever,  worlds  without 
end.  Amen,  Amen,  and  Amen !" 

Mr.  Phil  Robinson,  the  representative  of  the  New  York 
World,  who  was  present,  wrote  thus  to  his  paper  regarding 
this  incident :  "Acquainted  as  I  am  with  displays  of  Oriental 
fanaticism  and  Western  revivalism,  I  set  this  Mormon  en- 
thusiasm on  one  side,  as  being  altogether  of  a  different  char- 
acter; for  it  not  only  astonishes  by  its  fervor,  but  commands 
respect  by  its  sincere  sobriety.  The  congregation  reminded 
me  of  the  Puritan  gatherings  of  the  past  as  I  had  imagined 
them,  and  of  my  personal  experiences  of  the  Transvaal  Boers 
as  I  knew  them.  There  was  no  rant,  no  affectation,  no  striv- 
ing after  theatrical  effect.  The  very  simplicity  of  this  great 
gathering  of  country-folk  was  striking  in  the  extreme,  and 
significant  from  first  to  last  of  a  power  that  should  hardly 
be  trifled  with  by  sentimental  legislation.  Nor  could  any- 
thing exceed  the  impressiveness  of  the  response  which  the 
people  gave  instantaneously  to  the  appeal  of  their  President 
for  the  support  of  their  voices.  The  great  Tabernacle  was 
filled  with  waves  of  sound  as  the  'Amens'  of  the  congregation 
burst  out.  The  shout  of  men  going  into  battle  was  not  more 
stirring  than  the  closing  words  of  this  memorable  conference, 
spoken  as  if  by  one  vast  voice." 

Women  Imprisoned. — In  November  of  that  year  an  epi- 
sode occurred  which,  though  isolated  from  the  long  series  of 
raids  and  prosecutions  that  followed,  was  significant  of  things 
to  come.  A  young  woman  giving  her  name  as  Annie  Gallifant, 
an  alleged  plural  wife,  was  before  the  Grand  Jury  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  where  she  was  plied  with  questions,  one  of  them  a  direct 
demand  for  the  name  of  her  husband.  She  refused  to  answer, 
not  only  before  the  Grand  Jury,  but  before  Chief  Justice 
Hunter,  who  informed  her  that  the  questions  were  proper,  and 
that  it  was  her  duty  to  reply  to  them.  Persisting  in  her  re- 
fusal, she  was  sent  to  the  Penitentiary.  Her  imprisonment 
was  only  for  twenty-four  hours.  The  Grand  Jury  having 
been  discharged,  she  was  set  at  liberty.  Four  days  later  she 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  369 

became  a  mother.  Her  husband — John  Connelly,  a  baker — 
was  tried  for  polygamy  and  acquitted.  Annie  Gallifant  ad- 
mitted on  the  witness  stand  that  she  was  his  plural  wife,  but 
the  prosecution  could  not  disprove  what  the  pair  stoutly  af- 
firmed— that  they  were  married  more  than  three  years  before 
the  finding  of  the  indictment,  and  were  therefore  shielded  by 
the  statute  of  limitations. 

About  six  months  after  the  imprisonment  of  Annie  Gal- 
lifant, a  similar  incident  took  place  at  Beaver.  The  woman  in 
the  case  was  Belle  Harris,  niece  to  Martin  Harris,  one  of  the 
Three  Witnesses  to  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Summoned  before 
the  Grand  Jury,  she  was  asked  if  she  was  a  married  woman, 
and  if  so,  when  and  to  whom  was  she  married?  She  refused 
to  answer  on  the  ground  of  personal  privilege,  and  though 
Judge  Twiss  decided  the  question  to  be  proper,  still  the  wit- 
ness was  silent.  She  was  fined  twenty-five  dollars,  and  com- 
mitted to  the  custody  of  the  Marshal.  Habeas  corpus  pro- 
ceedings carried  the  case  before  the. Supreme  Court  of  the 
Territory,  which  held  with  the  District  Court  that  the  witness 
was  in  contempt.  Belle  Harris,  with  her  infant  child,  was 
kept  in  the  Penitentiary  from  May  until  August,  1883,  when 
by  order  of  Judge  Twiss  she  was  liberated,  the  Grand  Jury 
having  withdrawn  the  objectionable  question.  The  name  of 
her  husband — for  she  was  indeed  a  plural  wife — remained  un- 
disclosed. 

A  third  instance  of  the  kind  was  that  of  Nellie  White,  a 
school  teacher,  suspected  of  being  the  plural  wife  of  Bishop 
Jared  Roundy,  of  Wanship,  Summit  County.  The  suspicion 
was  partly  based  upon  the  fact  that  she  boarded  in  the  Bish- 
op's family;  having  his  daughters  among  her  pupils.  Roundy's 
case  was  considered  by  the  Grand  Jury  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
Miss  White  was  summoned  as  a  witness.  Answers  were  de- 
manded to  a  number  of  questions,  all  concerning  her  alleged 
marriage.  Refusing  to  answer  them,  she  was  taken  before 
Chief  Justice  Hunter,  and  there  repeated  her  refusal.  She  was 
committed  to  the  Penitentiary  until  she  should  be  willing  to 
reply,  or  until  a  further  order  of  the  court  in  her  case.  These 
proceedings  occurred  in  May,  1884.  The  young  school  teacher 
remained  a  prisoner  a  little  over  six  weeks. 

Kate  Field  and  "The  Mormon  Monster." — Among  the 
many  visitors  who  interviewed  Miss  WThite  during  her  sojourn 
in  the  Utah  Penitentiary,  was  the  well  known  writer  and  plat- 
form speaker,  Miss  Kate  Field,  who  spent  several  months  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  gathering  materials  for  a  lecture  afterwards 
delivered  by  her  at  Washington,  D.  C,  and  in  other  Eastern 
towns.  The  lecture  was  entitled  "The  Mormon  Monster," 

23 


370      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  was  made  up  of  the  usual  "Anti-Mormon"  pabulum  fed 
to  tourists  and  travelers  by  those  bent  upon  bringing  about 
radical  changes  in  the  social  and  political  affairs  of  this  Terri- 
tory. Miss  Field  came  to  Utah  apparently  unprejudiced,  and 
at  first  was  quite  friendly  with  prominent  "Mormons."  But 
she  afterwards  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Governor  Murray, 
and  accepted  from  him  and  his  intimates  their  side  of  the  story 
as  the  truth  pertaining  to  matters  in  "Mormondom." 

Another  Great  Railroad.— Here  the  continuity  of  the  main 
narrative  embodied  in  this  chapter  must  be  broken  long 
enough  to  permit  mention  of  an  important  happening  in  the 
local  commercial  world.  In  the  midst  of  the  political  and 
judicial  events  under  consideration,  the  public  mind  was  di- 
verted to  more  material  affairs  by  the  completion  to  Salt  Lake 
City  of  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Railroad ;  an  outgrowth 
of  the  system  bearing  that  name  in  the  State  of  Colorado. 
The  work  of  construction  from  the  Utah  line  had  begun  in 
1881,  and  the  last  rail  was  laid  about  the  end  of  March,  1883. 
This  point,  however,  was  not  to  be  the  terminus  of  the  road. 
The  plan  was  to  extend  it  to  Ogden,  and  there  join  with  the 
Central  (now  Southern)  Pacific,  thus  establishing  another 
through  route  between  the  East  and  California.  The  line  from 
Salt  Lake  City  to  Ogden  was  opened  for  business  early  in  May. 

The  Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  companies,  since 
the  meeting  at  Promontory  in  1869,  had  held  an  almost  un- 
broken monopoly  of  the  railroad  business  of  Utah.  Especially 
was  this  true  of  the  Union  Pacific  Company,  which  speedily 
acquired  possession  or  control  of  most  of  the  local  lines.  But 
now  a  powerful  competitor  entered  the  field,  and  a  new  era 
in  the  commercial  life  of  the  Territory  began.  The  new  road, 
uniting  the  capitals  of  Utah  and  Colorado,  conferred  imme- 
diate benefit  upon  both  commonwealths.  Passenger  fares  and 
freight  rates  were  reduced,  and  the  development  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  Rocky  Mountain  region  was  greatly  stimulated. 
The  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Railroad  in  Utah  was  originally 
a  narrow  gauge  line.  The  track  was  not  broad-gauged  until 
1890.* 


*Utah  had  had  a  street  railway  since  July,  1872,  when  the  first 
lire,  at  Salt  Lake  City,  was  opened  for  traffic  on  South  Temple  Street, 
eastward  from  the  Utah  Central  Depot  to  West  Temple  Street,  whence 
it  ran  south  and  east  into  the  Ninth  Ward.  This  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  a  branch  to  the  Warm  Springs,  and  by  other  extensions. 
The  founders  of  the  enterprise  were  Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  William  B. 
Preston,  Seymour  B.  Young,  Moses  Thatcher,  John  W.  Young,  John 
N.  Pike,  Le  Grand  Young,  Parley  L.  Williams,  William  W.  Riter 
and  Hamilton  G.  Park.  Horse  power  was  originally  used  by  the 
Salt  Lake  City  railroad;  electricity  not  being  employed  until  August, 
1889. 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  371 

Prospering  in  Adversity. — Thus  Utah  continued  to  pros- 
per, notwithstanding  the  internal  strife  that  frightened  away 
capital  and  population,  but  could  not  entirely  destroy  pros- 
perity, nor  hinder  the  promotion  of  great  enterprises.  That 
the  Territory  could  advance  under  such  conditions  is  proof 
positive  of  the  sterling  character  of  its  people,  and  the  attrac- 
tive richness  of  its  unbounded  material  wealth. 

The  Standing  Murder. — Reverting  now  to  the  main  sub- 
ject— the  general  trend  of  events  immediately  preceding  and 
following  the  enactment  of  the  Edmunds  Law.  One  of  the 
earliest  results  of  the  agitation  that  produced  that  statute  was 
the  murder  of  a  "Mormon"  missionary — Elder  Joseph  Stand- 
ing, of  Salt  Lake  City,  who  was  killed  by  a  mob  near  Varnell's 
Station,  Whitfield  County,  Georgia,  on  the  21st  of  July,  1879. 
Elder  Standing,  who  presided  over  the  Georgia  Conference  of 
the  Southern  States  Mission,  and  Elder  Rudger  Clawson,  also 
from  Salt  Lake  City,  were  walking  along  a  road  that  ran 
through  the  woods,  when  suddenly  they  were  surrounded  by 
twelve  armed  men,  some  mounted  and  some  afoot.  Uttering 
exultant  yells,  the  mob  seized  the  two  young  men  and  hurried 
them  into  the  forest.  One  of  the  party — a  Baptist  deacon 
named  Clark — who  was  walking  in  the  rear,  without  provoca- 
tion struck  Elder  Clawson  a  staggering  blow  on  the  back  of 
the  head  with  his  fist.  When  the  Elders  asked  by  what  au- 
thority they  were  interfered  with,  they  were  told  that  they 
would  "know  soon  enough,"  and  were  later  informed  that  they 
were  "going  to  get  a  sound  flogging."  This  meant  that  they 
would  be  stripped  to  the  waist,  bound  face  downward  over  a 
fallen  tree  or  some  other  convenient  object,  and  beaten  with 
hickory  withes  till  they  were  insensible.  The  pain  thus  in- 
flicted, it  is  said,  could  be  made  so  intense  that  death  itself 
was  almost  preferable.  In  answer  to  a  remark  by  Elder 
Clawson,  that  he  had  supposed  the  United  States  to  be  a  land 
of  liberty  and  law,  the  mob  replied:  "There  is  no  law  in 
Georgia  for  'Mormons.' ' 

Having  reached  a  clearing,  most  of  the'  party  sat  down  to 
rest,  while  several  horsemen  rode  on  to  select  a  suitable  place 
for  the  proposed  whipping.  Elder  Standing,  complaining  of 
thirst,  was  permitted  to  drink  from  a  spring  near  by,  and  had 
just  returned  to  his  seat  upon  the  ground  when  the  horsemen 
reappeared.  "Follow  us,"  they  said.  Standing,  rendered 
desperate  by  the  situation,  now  sprang  to  his  feet,  wheeled 
around,  and  clapping  his  hands  together,  shouted  "Surrender!" 
Quick  as  a  flash,  a  man  at  his  left  arose,  thrust  a  pistol  into 
his  face,  and  fired;  the  ball  piercing  the  brain.  He -reeled 
twice  and  fell.  All  eyes  were  then  turned  upon  Clawson. 
"Shoot  that  man!"  exclaimed  the  leader.  Instantlv  a  dozen 


372      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

guns  were  leveled  at  the  missionary,  who  showed  amazing 
intrepidity.  Looking  calmly  into  the  frowning  muzzles,  he 
said,  "Shoot."  His  coolness  saved  him.  The  guns  were  low- 
ered, and  the  mob  gathered  in  a  group  to  consult,  leaving 
Clawson  to  wait  upon  his  dying  companion.  While  he  went 
for  assistance  to  the  house  of  a  friend — Mr.  Henry  Holston — 
the  murderers  riddled  the  dead  body  with  bullets  and  stabbed 
it  with  knives;  their  purpose,  it  was  thought,  being  to  impli- 
cate the  entire  party  and  insure  unanimity  of  silence. 

Assassins  Acquitted. — Elder  Clawson  brought  the  body 
home.  At  Ogden  and  at  Salt  Lake  City  the  train  bearing  it 
was  met  by  mourning  multitudes.  The  funeral  service  was 
held  in  the  great  Tabernacle,  and  a  monument  erected  by  the 
Young  Men's  Mutual  Improvement  Associations  was  placed 
above  the  sleeping  dust.  Three  of  the  assassins,  Jasper  N. 
Nations,  Andrew  Bradley,  and  Hugh  Blair,  were  indicted  for 
murder,  manslaughter,  and  riot,  upon  testimony  furnished  by 
Rudger  Clawson,  Henry  Holston,  and  two  others  who  had 
seen  the  mob  before  or  after  the  assault.  At  the  trial  in 
Dalton,  Georgia,  the  evidence  was  direct  and  conclusive,  and 
the  prosecuting  officers,  Solicitor-General  Hackett  and  Colonel 
W.  R.  Moore,  did  their  full  duty;  but  Judge  and  Jury,  biased 
foi  or  intimidated  by  the  defendants  and  their  sympathizers, 
set  the  murderers  free. 

The  Cane  Creek  Massacre. — A  tragedy  more  terrible  still, 
and  one  springing  from  like  causes,  occurred  on  the  10th  of 
August,  1884,  at  Cane  Creek,  Lewis  County,  Tennessee.  In 
this  affair  two  Utah  missionaries,  William  S.  Berry  and  John 
H.  Gibbs,  the  former  middle-aged,  the  latter  more  youthful, 
lost  their  lives.  It  was  a  Sabbath  morning,  and  Elders  Gibbs 
and  Berry,  with  other  missionaries  and  a  few  converts,  were 
about  to  hold  a  service  at  the  farm  house  of  James  Condor,  a 
member  of  the  Church,  when  a  mob  invaded  the  premises  and 
fired  upon  the  peaceful  worshipers,  killing  the  Elders  named 
and  two  young  men  not  of  their  faith  who  tried  to  protect 
them. 

Prior  to  the  massacre  the  mob  had  captured  Elder  William 
H.  Jones,  also  from  Utah,  who  was  on  his  way  to  the  meeting 
at  Condor's,  when  twelve  or  fifteen  men,  all  wearing  masks, 
rushed  from  the  timber  at  the  roadside  and  made  him  their 
prisoner.  After  a  thorough  searching,  they  compelled  him  to 
go  with  them  through  a  corn  field  into  the  forest.  Leaving 
him  with  one  of  their  number,  the  others  disappeared  in  the 
direction  of  the  Condor  farm.  The  man  in  charge  of  Elder 
Jones  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the  murderous  designs  of  his 
companions.  He  informed  his  prisoner  that  he  intended  to  let 
him  go.  "I'll  kill  you,  though,"  he  added,  "if  you  act  unfair." 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  373 

Jones  was  then  ordered  to  walk  ahead,  and  obeyed.  They 
had  gone  but  a  short  distance  when  a  shot  was  heard,  followed 
by  others,  and  soon  a  whole  volley  shook  the  air.  "My  God!" 
exclaimed  the  man,  "they  are  shooting  among  the  women  and 
children;  don't  you  hear  them  scream?"  Jones,  at  the  behest 
of  his  guard,  now  ran,  the  latter  following,  gun  in  hand,  until 
they  reached  the  road,  where  they  parted ;  the  missionary  first 
being  directed  to  a  place  of  safety.  At  Shady  Grove,  in  Hick- 
man  County,  there  was  a  branch  of  the  "Mormon"  Church,  and 
Elder  Jones  arrived  there  next  morning. 

Most  of  the  shots  heard  by  him  and  his  guard  were  fired 
by  the  mob  who  had  previously  had  him  in  their  power. 
Elders  Gibbs  and  Berry,  with  Elder  Henry  Thompson,  had 
reached  the  Condor  home,  and  were  seated,  singing  hymns 
and  waiting  for  their  congregation  to  assemble,  when  there 
came  a  sudden  shout.  Looking  in  the  direction  of  the  front 
gate,  they  saw  Mr.  Condor  struggling  in  the  grasp  of  several 
men,  while  others  were  rushing  toward  the  house.  The  mob- 
bers  still  wore  their  masks,  and  were  armed  with  rifles  and 
pistols. 

"Get  your  guns!"  shouted  Condor  to  his  boys  in  the 
orchard.  Martin  Condor,  a  youth  of  nineteen  or  twenty, 
reached  the  back  door  just  as  the  leader  of  the  mob,  David 
Hinson,  who  had  entered  at  the  front,  was  taking  down,  from 
the  hooks  where  it  hung,  a  shot-gun,  the  boy's  own  weapon. 
There  was  a  fierce  struggle  for  its  possession,  during  which 
Hinson  snapped  a  pistol  in  Martin's  face.  He  recoiled,  and 
the  mobber,  securing  the  gun,  fired  at  Elder  Gibbs,  the  shot 
taking  effect  under  his  arm.  He  sank  down  by  a  bed  and 
died.  A  gun  was  leveled  at  Thompson,  but  Berry,  large  and 
powerful,  seized  the  barrel  and  turned  the  muzzle  away  from 
his  friend.  While  thus  holding  but  making  no  further  effort 
to  secure  the  gun,  Berry  was  fired  upon  by  two  of  the  mob, 
both  shots  piercing  his  abdomen.  He  fell  to  the  floor  and 
expired.  Meantime  Thompson  had  escaped  to  the  woods. 

Elder  Gibbs  had  no  sooner  fallen,  than  Martin  Condor 
renewed  his  struggle  with  Hinson  for  the  shot-gun,  and  at  this 
juncture  some  of  the  assaulting  party  shot  the  heroic  boy, 
whose  antagonist  then  retreated. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fray  J.  Riley  Hudson,  son  of  Mrs. 
Condor  by  a  former  marriage,  entered  the  house  from  the  rear, 
and  while  his  brother  was  grappling  with  Hinson,  climbed 
into  the  loft  to  get  his  gun.  Riley  descended  in  time  to  see 
Martin  writhing  in  death  agony,  and  the  murderer  of  his 
friend  Gibbs  passing  out  by  the  front  doorway.  Flinging 
aside  two  ruffians  who  sought  to  stay  him,  young  Hudson 
leaped  to  the  door  and  shot  Hinson  dead  in  the  presence  of 


374      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

his  followers.  They  returned  the  fire,  mortally  wounding  the 
brave  youth,  who  died  an  hour  later.  After  Hudson  fell,  the 
mob  returned  to  the  house  and  poured  a  volley  in  at  the  win- 
dcw,  seriously  wounding  Mrs.  Condor,  and  riddling  Berry's 
corpse.  They  then  retired,  taking  with  them  the  body  of  their 
leader. 

The  little  congregation  of  men,  women  and  children,  who 
had  fled  to  the  woods,  now  came  back  upon  the  tragic  scene, 
and  with  tears  and  wailings  the  bodies  of  the  murdered  mis- 
sionaries and  the  young  heroes  who  had  met  their  death  in  a 
vain  attempt  to  save  the  lives  of  their  friends,  were  prepared 
for  burial  and  laid  side  by  side  in  mother  earth. 

Tidings  of  the  tragedy  were  wired  to  Elder  B.  H.  Roberts, 
at  Chattanooga;  he,  in  the  absence  of  President  John  Morgan, 
having  charge  of  the  Southern  States  Mission.  Roberts  tele- 
graphed the  news  to  Morgan  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  then, 
assisted  by  Elder  J.  Golden  Kimball  and  others,  took  imme- 
diate steps  to  recover  the  bodies  of  the  missionaries,  that  they 
might  be  sent  to  Utah.  The  scene  of  the  massacre  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  mob-infested  section,  to  enter  which  was  extremely 
perilous.  But  President  Roberts,  disguising  himself  and  pur- 
suing a  roundabout  course,  reached  Cane  Creek  and  accom- 
plished his  errand.  Willis  R.  Robison,  one  of  the  missionaries, 
was  released  to  take  the  bodies  home. 

A  Community  in  Mourning. — As  the  funeral  train  pro- 
ceeded northward  through  the  Utah  settlements,  sympathetic 
and  sorrowing  crowds  assembled  at  the  railroad  stations  to 
pay. tributes  to  the  dead.  Flags  floated  at  half  mast,  and 
bands  played  solemn  dirges.  At  Provo  the  remains  of  Elder 
Berry  were  transferred  from  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  to  a 
Utah  Central  train,  and  conveyed  to  Milford;  thence  by  team 
to  Kanarra,  Iron  County.  The  body  of  Elder  Gibbs  was  sent 
to  his  home  in  Paradise,  Cache  County.  At  each  of  these 
places  and  in  Salt  Lake  City,  funeral  services  were  held  on 
Sunday,  the  24th  of  August.  Since  the  Standing  murder, 
no  such  demonstration  of  grief  had  been  known  in  Utah,  not 
excepting  the  general  sorrow  felt  over  the  death  of  Cap- 
tain Andrew  Burt,  Marshal  and  Chief  of  Police  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  who,  on  the  25th  of  August,  1883,  had  been  shot  by  a 
negro  desperado,  whom  he  was  arresting  for  a  disturbance  of 
the  peace.* 

*Officer  Charles  H.  Wilcken,  who  assisted  Captain  Burt, 
was  dangerously  wounded  by  the  same  assassin,  who  was  armed 
with  a  Winchester  rifle  and  a  revolver,  while  Burt  and  Wilcken  were 
without  a  weapon.  Half  an  hour  after  the  death  of  Captain  Burt,  his 
murderer  was  lynched  by  a  mob.  Occurrences  of  this  kind,  always 
regrettable  and  always  to  be  condemned,  have  been  exceedingly  rare 
in  Utah. 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  375 

Unwhipped  of  Justice.— Leading  papers  throughout  the 
land  denounced  the  murder  of  the  missionaries,  and  demanded 
that  justice  be  done  upon  the  perpetrators.  Efforts  to  this 
end  were  made  by  the  authorities  of  the  State  of  Tennessee. 
Governor  W.  B.  Bate,  after  some  hesitation,  betokening  re- 
luctance, offered  a  reward  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  the  ap- 
prehension of  the  murderers,  or  for  information  leading  to  their 
capture.  But  all  in  vain ;  they  were  never  discovered.  Anti- 
"Mormon"  feeling  increased  in  the  South,  and  those  who  had 
befriended  the  missionaries  on  Cane  Creek  were  finally  com- 
pelled to  leave  the  State.* 

Placing  the  Responsibility. — Responsibility  for  the  four- 
fold crime  was  placed  by  local  writers  and  speakers  upon 
"Anti-Mormon"  agitators,  who  were  accused  of  circulating- 
incendiary  literature  for  the  purpose  of  arousing  hostile  sen- 
timent against  "Mormon"  missionaries  in  every  part  of  the 
Nation.  A  sample  story  fabricated  and  published  by  them 
some  time  before  the  Tennessee  tragedy  took  place,  purported 
to  describe  how  one  "Bishop  West,"  of  Juab,  Utah,  in  the 
course  of  a  violent  harangue  to  his  Sabbath  congregation, 
urged  them  to  assassinate  Governor  Murray.  This  fiction 
was  easily  refuted ;  there  being  no  Bishop  West  in  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  at  that  time,  and  no  public  meeting  of  any  kind 
at  Juab  on  the  date  given.  It  happened  to  be  a  season  of  high 
water,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  town,  dispensing  with 
their  usual  Sunday  service,  had  turned  out  in  force  to  save 
their  homes  from  the  flood. 

The  Governor  of  Utah  came  in  for  his  share  of  censure  in 
this  connection,  he  having  telegraphed  to  the  Governor  of 
Tennessee  soon  after  the  massacre,  thanking  him  for  his  efforts 
to  discover  and  punish  the  guilty  parties,  but  in  the  same 
telegram  referring  to  the  murdered  missionaries  as  "agents" 
sent  out  by  "representatives  of  organized  crime." 

The  Anti-Mormon  Power. — The  prevailing  sentiment 
against  polygamy,  with  the  laws  in  force  for  its  suppression, 
added  to  the  belief  that  the  Church  leaders  manipulated  polit- 
ical, commercial,  and  other  matters  for  personal  ends,  and 
that  their  followers  were  not  free  to  act  for  themselves,  made 
it  easy  for  agitators,  with  motives  both  good  and  bad,  to  sow 
the  seeds  of  hostility  against  the  unpopular  "Mormons." 
In  and  out  of  Utah,  there  was  a  combination  against  them, 
formidable  both  in  numbers  and  in  influence.  Governors, 


*Manassa  and  other  towns  in  Conejos  County,  Colorado,  were 
founded  about  that  time,  many  of  the  early  settlers  being  /'Mormon" 
emigrants  from  the  Southern  States.  Some  of  these  also  moved  into 
Arizona. 


376      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF \JTAH. 

judges,  attorneys,  editors,  magazine  writers,  Congressmen, 
politicians,  and  preachers,  all  united  to  carry  on  or  encourage 
the  Anti-"Mormon"  crusade. 

Diverse  Elements. — Many  of  these  were  honorable,  high- 
minded  men,  contending  for  a  cause;  that  cause  the  Govern- 
ment's, in  the  assertion  of  its  authority  over  a  supposedly  re- 
calcitrant community,  and  the  enforcement  of  its  laws  against 
a  social  condition  believed  by  a  majority  of  the  Nation  to  be 
immoral  and  degrading;  a  belief  based  largely  upon  gross 
misrepresentation.  These  men,  though  disliking  certain 
features  of  the  "Mormon"  faith  and  polity,  did  not  wish  to  be 
considered  enemies  to  the  "Mormon"  people;  nor  were  they 
so  considered,  when  they  came  to  be  fully  understood.  They 
joined  in  the  demand  for  certain  concessions — the  surrender 
of  plural  marriage,  and  the  divorcement  of  that  widely  pro- 
claimed union  of  Church  and  State  which  the  "Mormons" 
declared  to  be  a  fiction  and  the  "Gentiles"  asserted  to  be  a  fact; 
but  these  concessions  once  made,  the  "war"  would  be  over. 
so  far  as  that  class  was  concerned. 

Mingled,  however,  with  this  more  moderate  element,  were 
some  who  cherished  feelings  of  malignant  hatred  toward 
everything  "Mormon" — doctrine,  discipline,  priesthood,  and 
people.  If  any  of  them  ever  laid  aside  such  feelings,  or  for- 
bore to  express  them,  it  was  only  long  enough  to  secure  a  cov- 
eted favor  from  the  objects  of  their  enmity,  individually  or 
collectively.  Could  these  zealots — political  and  religious — 
have  had  their  way,  the  Church  would  have  been  destroyed 
root  and  branch.  No  concessions  that  might  be  made  would 
satisfy  their  souls.  The  Church  leaders  were  their  special 
aversion.  If  the  sheep  could  have  been  induced  to  forsake  their 
shepherds,  the  animosity  of  these  extremists  would  have  been 
greatly  modified. 

More  than  one  self-seeking  adventurer  found  it  to  their 
interest  to  join  hands  with  this  hostile  element,  'and  help  along 
the  work  of  reconstruction — the  "reformation"  of  people  better 
than  themselves.  Of  course  they  posed  as  patriots;  such 
characters  always  do.  But  patriots  are  of  two  kinds — real 
and  pretended,  and  one  familiar  with  the  facts  need  not  be 
told  to  which  class  such  persons  properly  belonged. 

Those  who  profited  by  the  agitation  so  hurtful  to  the  com- 
munity at  large,  quite  naturally  sought  to  promote  it.  Others, 
who  had  nothing  to  gain  and  something  to  lose  from  the  ex- 
citement and  ill-feeling  continually  fomented — "Gentile"  busi- 
ness men,  who  knew  that  peace  meant  prosperity,  while  strife 
threatened  the  opposite — eventually  made  it  manifest  that  they 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  377 

were  not  altogether  in  harmony  with  the  course  pursued  by 
their  radical  associates. 

"Mormon"  Motives.— The  fear  that  the  Church  was  in 
danger,  particularly  from  a  certain  class,  made  the  Priesthood 
all  the  more  tenacious  of  the  power  they  wielded,  and  which 
their  enemies  charged  them  with  misusing  and  abusing.  The 
''Mormon"  leaders  were  not  understood  by  their  opponents — 
not  even  by  those  nearest  to  them  and  who  thought  they  could 
read  them  thoroughly.  They  were  not  credited  with  the  real 
motives  that  actuated  them.  Whatever  their  shortcomings — 
and  none  among  them  have  ever  claimed  to  be  perfect — they 
were  not  selfishly  seeking  their  own  aggrandizement.  They 
were  not  coveting  wealth  and  worldly  honors.  Love  of  power 
— a  perfectly  legitimate  principle  when  properly  controlled  and 
rightly  directed — has  never  been  the  ruling  motive  with  the 
"Mormon"  Priesthood.  They  have  always  been  one  with  their 
people  in  zeal  for  and  devotion  to  a  cause  which  both  believe 
to  be  divine.  And  that  zeal  and  devotion  have  been  mistaken 
for  and' confounded  with  mere  love  of  self  and  lust  of  do- 
minion. Those  who  charged  them  therewith  were  quite  as 
open  to  suspicion  on  that  score. 

Nor  were  these  leaders  the  immoral  characters  that 
prejudice  represented  them  to  be.  On  the  contrary,  they  were 
men  of  pure  life  and  honest  purpose,  the  peers  of  the  best 
among  their  opponents.  They  were  not  using  polygamy  as  a 
decoy  to  induce  conversions — though  this,  among  other  things, 
was  charged  against  them.  Their  alleged  "cunning  appeals  to 
the  base  passions  of  men,"  in  order  to  recruit  their  ranks  and 
perpetuate  their  power,  were  in  reality  calls  to  repentance,  ex- 
hortations to  purity,  self-denial,  and  disinterested  effort  for 
the  promotion  of  a  work  altruistic  and  philanthropic  to  the 
core. 

Prominent  During  the  Crusade. — The  Federal  officers  most 
prominent  in  Utah  at  the  beginning  of  "The  Crusade,"  were 
Governor  Eli  H.  Murray,  Chief  Justice  Charles  S.  Zane,  Asso- 
ciate Justices  Orlando  W.  Powers  and  Jacob  S.  Boreman,  Dis- 
trict Attorney  William  H.  Dickson,  Assistant  District  Attor- 
ney Charles  S.  Varian,  and  United  States  Marshal  Edward  A. 
Ireland.  Governor  Murray's  antecedents  have  been  given ; 
and  Judge  Boreman  has  likewise  been  introduced  to  the  reader. 
Concerning  Judge  Powers,  more  will  be  said  anon.  Mr.  Dick- 
son  was  by  birth  a  Canadian,  but  had  become  an  American 
citizen  and  a  resident  on  the  Pacific  Coast  prior  to  June,  1874, 
when  he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Virginia  City, 
Nevada.  He  remained  there  until  1882,  and  then  took  up  his 


378      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


residence  at  Salt  Lake  City.  Two  years  later  he  succeeded 
District  Attorney  Van  Zile  (resigned)  and  chose  for  an  assist- 
ant his  law  partner,  Mr.  Varian,  also  from  Nevada.  Marshal 
Ireland,  who  had  succeeded  Colonel  Shaughnessy  in  1882,  was 
in  business  at  the  Utah  capital  when  he  received  his  appoint- 
ment as  a  Federal  officer.  To  this  array  may  be  added  Secre- 
tary Thomas  and  the  members  of  the  Utah  Commission. 

Chief  Justice  Zane. — Utah's  new  Chief  Justice  must  have 
more  than  passing  mention  at  this  point.  He  was  a  native  of 
New  Jersey,  but  had  resided  since  early  youth  in  Illinois, 
where  he  farmed,  taught  school,  and  practiced  law.  He  was 
well  acquainted  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  when  that  great 
man  became  President,  Charles  Shuster  Zane,  then  thirty 
years  of  age,  succeeded  him  in  the  law  firm  of  Lincoln  and 
Herndon,  at  Springfield.  Subsequently  he  was  one  of  the 
firm  of  Cullom,  Zane  and  Marcy,  the  -senior  member  of  which 
afterwards  stood  sponsor  for  the  Cullom  Bill  in  Congress. 
Judge  Zane  was  presiding  over  a  circuit  court  in  Illinois, 
when  he  received  from  President  Arthur  his  Utah  appoint- 
ment. It  had  been  procured  for  him,  without  solicitation  on 
his  part,  by  his  fellow  Republican,  Senator  Cullom,  and  by 
William  M.  Springer,  Democratic  member  of  the  House  of 

Representatives.  The  Chief 
Justice,  accompanied  by  his 
family,  arrived  at  Salt  Lake 
City  August  23,  1884. 

'  Not  a  Parallel.  —  Judge 
Zane,  unlike  Judge  McKean,  to 
whom  he  was  at  first  compared, 
was  not  a  religious  man.  That 
is  to  say,  he  subscribed  to  no 
special  creed,  and  was  inter- 
ested in  no  particular  church. 
At  the  same  time,  as  he  stated 
in  conversation  with  the  writer 
hereof,  he  had  faith  in  the 
Supreme  Being,  and  in  a  gen- 
eral way  considered  himself  a 
Christian.  He  was  a  moral 
man,  one  of  upright  tenden- 
cies, and  if  his  attitude  with 
reference  to  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution leaned  from  "strict 
construction"  in  the  direction 
of  "implied  powers,"  it  was  but  natural,  considering  his  polit- 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  379 

ical  training  and  affiliations.     Above  all,  he  was  a  zealous  and 
determined  advocate  of  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  law. 

Backed  by  Law. — Let.it  be  remembered,  also,  that  Judge 
Zane  and  those  about  him,  however  strained  at  times  their  legal 
constructions,  and  however  extreme  some  of  their  official  acts, 
had  law  behind  them,  to  back  up  their  proceedings;  and  were 
not  in  precisely  the  same  situation  that  Judge  McKean  and 
his  associates  had  been — who,  in  the  absence  of  Congressional 
enactments,  legislated  for  themselves,  and  enforced  with 
judicial  authority  the  "laws"  of  their  own  creation.  Con- 
gress, after  much  pushing  and  prodding,  had  acted  favorably 
upon  certain  features  of  some  of  the  "Anti-Mormon"  measures 
previously  presented  to  and  rejected  by  that  body,  and  to  effect 
a  special  purpose  had  made  lawful  the  once  unlawful  "legisla- 
tion." And  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Land  having  put  the 
seal  of  its  approval  thereon — presto,  change !  All  was  differ- 
ent. Black  became  white,  by  legislative  and  judicial  pro- 
nouncement. 

Open  Venire  and  the  Poland  Law. — Chief  Justice  Zane, 
immediately  after  his  installation,  found  himself  confronted  by 
a  question  upon  which  the  attorneys  of  his  court  were  much 
divided.  It  arose  while  the  Grand  Jury  was  being  empaneled 
for  the  September  term  of  1884.  Several  days  had  been  con- 
sumed in  the  process,  and  so  many  jurors  had  been  rejected 
for  their  avowed  belief  in  the  rightfulness  of  plural  marriage, 
that  the  jury  box  containing  the  names  of  persons  qualified 
to  serve  in  that  capacity  was  exhausted;  and  yet  but  eleven 
of  the  required  fifteen  jurymen  had  been  obtained.  Thereupon 
Assistant  District  Attorney  Varian  moved  that  the  United 
States  Marshal  be  empowered  to  summon  on  open  venire  a 
sufficient  number  of  persons  to  complete  the  panel. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Territory  it  had  been  customary 
to  select  and  summon  jurors  precisely  as  Mr.  Varian  now 
proposed.  But  that  custom  had  been  abandoned,  the  Legis- 
lature having  enacted  a  law  requiring  jurors  to  be  drawn  by 
lot  from  the  names  found  upon  the  county  assessment  rolls. 
The  drawing  was  done  by  the  Territorial  Marshal  or  his  dep- 
uty; the  names  having  first  been  placed  in  the  jury  box  by 
the  members  of  the  County  Court.  That  practice  prevailed 
until  1874,  when  Congress  gave  the  Poland  Law  to  govern 
the  jury  system  of  Utah. 

The  Poland  Law  provided  that  in  January  of  each  year  a 
list  from  which  grand  and  petit  jurors  were  to  be  drawn  should 
be  prepared  jointly  by  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  and  the 
Probate  Judge  of  the  County.  The  Clerk  and  the  Judge — the 
former  a  "Gentile."  the  latter  a  "Mormon" — selected  alter- 
natelv  the  names  of  two  hundred  resident  male  citizens,  and 


380      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

from  this  list  jurors  were  drawn  to  serve  at  any  term  of  the 
District  Court  during  that  year.  Prior  to  the  drawing,  which 
was  done  by  the  United  States  Marshal  or  his  deputy  in  open 
court  and  in  the  presence  of  the  District  Judge,  the  names 
were  put  on  separate  slips  of  paper,  placed  in  a  covered  box, 
and  thoroughly  mixed  and  mingled.  This  manner  of  provid- 
ing jurors  had  continued  for  ten  years  without  interruption. 
Not  until  April,  1884,  when  Chief  Justice  Hunter  caused  the 
panel  of  a  grand  jury  to  be  filled  in  a  slightly  irregular  way, 
does  there  appear  to  have  been  any  deviation  from  the  rule. 
Judge  Hunter  did  not  authorize  a  writ  of  open  venire,  but 
directed  the  drawing  of  additional  names  from  the  jury  box 
and  the  summoning  of  their  owners  to  serve,  without  the 
twelve  days'  notice  required  by  law. 

Discussion  by  Attorneys. — But  now  the  jury  box  was  ex- 
hausted, the  regular  list  of  two  hundred  names  having  proved 
inadequate ;  and  the  District  Court  must  either  adjourn  until 
January,  1885,  when  a  fresh  list  might  be  provided,  or  resort 
to  the  open  venire  method  of  obtaining  jurors.  Before  reach- 
ing a  decision,  Judge  Zane  invited  a  discussion  of  the  subject 
by  the  attorneys  present.  Some  of  them  held  the  Poland  Law 
to  be  exclusive,  Congress  having  enacted  it  so  that  "Mor- 
mons" and  "Gentiles"  might  have  equal  representation 
in  the  jury  box,  and  it  was  argued  that  if  the  grand 
jury  were  not  formed  in  the  manner  thus  authorized, 
it  would  be  a  nullity.  Others  reasoned  thus :  Congress 
had  provided  that  four  terms  of  court — February,  April, 
September,  and  December — should  be  held  yearly  in  each 
judicial  district  of  the  Territory.  Two  of  these  terms 
for  1884  would  have  to  lapse  if  jurors  could  not  be  obtained. 
The  statute  governing  the  selection  of  jurors  having  been  ex- 
hausted, the  court  must  use  the  necessary  means  to  bring  its 
powers  into  exercise.  The  Englebrecht  case  and  Judge  Mc- 
Kean's  illegal  grand  juries  had  been  mentioned.  But  it  was 
argued  that  the  present  situation  differed  from  the  one  exist- 
ing at  that  time.  Then  the  court  refused  to  pursue  the  method 
provided  by  the  Legislature.  Now  the  means  provided  by 
Congress  was  exhausted,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  court  to 
exercise  the  common  law  power. 

The  Grand  Jury  Complete. — Judge  Zane  granted  the  mo- 
tion for  a  writ  of  open  venire,  and  Marshal  Ireland,  armed 
with  that  process,  sallied  forth  into  the  streets.  In  a  short 
time  he  returned  bringing  with  him  .eight  jurors,  four  of  whom 
were  accepted,  making  the  Grand  Jury  complete.  With  one 
exception  all  its  members  were  "Gentiles,"  and  the  "Mormon" 
was  a  disbeliever  in  polygamy.  The  foreman,  one  of  those 
summoned  upon  open  venire,  was  an  adventurer  who  had 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  381 

formerly  professed  the  "Mormon"  faith — long  enough  to  marry 
a  widow  who  had  been  a  plural  wife — but  had  left  the  Church, 
and  was  now  numbered  among  its  bitterest  foes.  It  was  the 
presence  of  such  characters  in  the  community — a  community 
torn  with  factional  strife,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  any 
other  within  the  confines  of  the  Republic; — it  was  this,  and 
the  dread  of  packed  juries — packed  to  convict — that  consti- 
tuted the  main  objection  to  this  method  of  obtaining  jurors. 

The  Clawson  Case. — Judge  Zane's  first  polygamy  case 
was  also  the  first,  under  the  Edmunds  Law,  to  be  submitted 
to  a  trial  jury.  The  defendant  was  Rudger  Clawson,  a  son  of 
Bishop  Hiram  B.  Clawson,  of  Salt  Lake  City.  His  mother, 
Margaret  Judd  Clawson,  was  a  plural  wife.  He  was  a  young 
man  of  good  character  and  exemplary  habits.  The  part  played 
by  him  when  his  fellow  missionary,  Joseph  Standing,  was 
killed  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  has  already  been  mentioned. 
His  alleged  plural  wife  was  Lydia  Spencer,  a  daughter  of 
Daniel  Spencer,  one  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Salt  Lake  Valley. 
The  Clawsons  and  Spencers  were  among  the  most  respected 
families  in  the  community. 

Rudger  Clawson  had  been  indicted  for  polygamy  and  un- 
lawful cohabitation  while  Chief  Justice  Hunter  was  still  upon 
the  Bench.  His  attorney,  Franklin  S.  Richards,  had  moved  to 
set  aside  the  indictment  on  the  ground  that  the  Grand  Jury 
which  presented  it  was  illegal.  In  the  formation  of  that  body 
fifteen  persons  ("Mormons")  had  been  challenged  and  excused 
for  avowing  a  belief  in  plural  marriage,  while  ten  others  ("Gen- 
tiles") had  been  accepted  without  question  as  to  their  belief  in 
polygamy  or  unlawful  cohabitation.  Five  other  names  had 
been  drawn  from  the  jury  box  without  the  previous  notice 
required  by  law.  For  these  reasons,  it  was  contended,  the 
indictment  should  be  set  aside. 

The  ground  taken  for  the  exclusion  of  "Mormons"  from 
the  Grand  Jury  was  furnished  by  that  section  of  the  Edmunds 
Act  providing  that  in  any  prosecution  for  polygamy  or  un- 
lawful cohabitation,  polygamists,  or  believers  in  polygamy,  or 
persons  living  in  or  believing  it  right  to  live  in  the  practice  of 
cohabiting  with  more  than  bne  woman,  should  be  rejected  as 
jurors.  The  defense  in  the  Clawson  case  contended  that  this 
provision  did  not  apply  to  grand  jurors,  but  only  to  petit 
jurors.  The  argument  before  Judge  Hunter  took  place  in 
April,  1884,  but  no  decision  was  reached.  Six  months  later 
Judge  Zane,  upon  a  renewed  motion,  was  asked  to  set  aside 
the  indictment,  and  the  motion  was  then  argued  and  overruled. 

First  Trial — Jury  Disagree. — The  Clawson  case  came  to 
trial  on  the  15th  of  October.  The  court  room  was  crowded, 


382      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

intense  interest  being  manifested  in  the  proceedings.  The 
twelve  jurymen  were  all  "Gentiles,"  and  two  of  them  had  been 
secured  by  the  open  venire  process.  According  to  the  indict- 
ment the  defendant  had  married  his  first  wife  in  August,  1882 
and  his  plural  wife  in  June,  1883.  The  principal  witness  for 
the  prosecution  was  a  fellow  employee  with  the  defendant  in 
the  Spencer  Clawson  Wholesale  Dry  Goods  house,  at  Salt 
Lake  City.  This  witness,  James  E.  Caine,  testified  that  Rud- 
ger  Clawson,  in  conversation  with  him,  had  admitted  that 
Lydia  Spencer  was  his  plural  wife.  On  the  17th  of  October, 
President  John  Taylor  was  upon  the  witness  stand,  it  being 
the  purpose  of  the  prosecution  to  fix  the  fact  of  Rudger  Claw- 
son's  plural  marriage,  and  obtain  information  regarding  a  mar- 
riage record  supposed  to  be  kept  at  the  Endowment  House. 
The  President  was  asked  by  U.  S.  Attorney  Dickson  if  such  a 
record  existed,  and  if  so  would  he  "be  good  enough  to  produce 
it,  or  make  inquiry  concerning  it?"  The  "Mormon"  leader 
replied:  "I  don't  think  I  am  good  enough;"  and  the  smile 
accompanying  his  words  was  reflected  upon  the  faces  of  nearly 
all  present.  "What  is  the  ceremony  of  plural  marriage?"  then 
asked  the  prosecuting  attorney.  "I  decline  to  state  it,"  an- 
swered the  witness.  "Do  you  know  whether  the  defendant 
has  taken  a  plural  wife?"  "I  do  not."  Such  was  the  substance 
of  President  Taylor's  testimony.  President  George  Q.  Cannon 
was  likewise  called  as  a  witness,  with  about  the  same  result. 
Several  others  were  examined,  but  their  testimony  was  not  of 
any  special  import. 

Arguments  of  counsel  followed,  Dickson  and  Yarian  for 
the  prosecution,  Bennett  and  Richards  for  the  defense.  The 
United  States  Attorney,  in  his  closing  address,  said:  "Gentle- 
men of  the  Jury,  let  me  trust  that  none  of  you  will  be  fright- 
ened by  the  assertion  that  if  the  defendant  were  found  guilty, 
the  'Mormon'  people  would  have  it  to  say  that  it  was  because 
his  jury  were  'Gentiles.'  If  you  have  any  reasonable  doubt,  let 
him  have  the  advantage  of  it ;  but  do  not,  I  entreat  you,  be 
frightened  out  of  what  is  just  and  right."  The  Judge  then 
charged  the  jury  and  they  retired.  Next  morning  they  came 
into  court,  and  by  their  foreman,  Major  Edmund  Wilkes, 
stated  that  they  were  unable  to  agree ;  eight  standing  for  con- 
viction and  four  for  acquittal.  The  jury  was  discharged. 

Second  Trial — Defendant  Convicted. — But  this  was  not 
the  end  of  the  matter.  A  sudden  turn  in  affairs  took  place 
immediately  after  the  discharge  of  the  trial  jury.  The  defend- 
ant's plural  wife,  up  to  that  time  a  missing  witness,  was  found 
and  taken  into  custody  by  the  United  States  Marshal.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  summons  served  upon  her,  she  appeared  in  court 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM. 


383 


next  morning,  and  a  new  trial  was  set  to  take  place  in  the 
afternoon.* 

At  the  hour  appointed  the  attorneys  for  the  defense  moved 
for  a  change  of  venue ;  the  grounds  being  the  open  venire  rul- 
ings of  the  court,  and  certain  utterances  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Tribune,  which  paper,  according  to  Judge  C.  W.  Bennett, 
"by  its  abuse  of  witnesses  and  jurors  during  and  after  the  late 
trial,  had  aroused  a  bitter  prejudice  against  the  defendant,  who 
therefore  felt  that  he  could  not 
have  a  fair  trial  in  this  court." 
The  motion  was  overruled,  and 
a  jury  empaneled  by  open 
venire. 

Lydia  Spencer,  when  called 
to  testify,  refused  to  be  sworn 
as  a  witness.  Persisting  in  her 
refusal,  she  was  committed  to 
the  Penitentiary.  Brought  in- 
to court  on  the  following  morn- 
ing, she,  at  the  request  of  the 
defendant,  took  the  required 
oath  and  admitted  that  she  was 
the  wife  of  Rudger  Clawson. 
The  case  was  submitted  with- 
out argument,  and  the  verdict 
was  "guilty  on  both  counts  of 
the  indictment."' 

A  Bold  Speech  and  a  Se- 
vere Sentence. —  Rudger  Claw- 
son  received  sentence  on  the 
.  third  day  of  November.  When 
asked  by  Judge  Zane  if  he  had 
any  legal  cause  to  show  why 
judgment  should  not  be  pronounced,  he  replied: 

"Your  Honor,  I  very  much  regret  that  the  laws  of  my 

*While  Marshal  Ireland  was  searching  for  the  main  witness,  one 
of  his  deputies  tried  to  serve  papers  upon  Mrs.  Margaret  Clawson,  the 
mother  of  the  defendant.  "She  is  not  at  home,"  said  Bishop  Clawson, 
answering  the  ring  at  his  front  door.  "I  want  to  search  the  house," 
persisted  the  deputy,  Captain  J.  W.  Greenman.  "You  can't  search  my 
house  without  a  warrant  authorizing  you  to  do  so,"  was  the  resolute 
reply.  The  officer  then  departed.  While  this  dialogue  was  in  progress, 
some  of  the  inmates  of  the  dwelling  executed  a  little  plot  for  their  own 
diversion.  One  of  the  Clawson  boys,  tricked  out  in  gown,  bonnet  and 
shawl,  hastily  left  the  'house  by  a  side  entrance  and  in  great  apparent 
trepidation  got  into  a  carriage  and  was  driven  rapidly  away.  Half  a 
dozen  deputies,  till  then  in  concealment,  made  a  wild  dash  for  the  re- 
ceding vehicle,  and  kept  up  the  vain  pursuit  until  the  carriage,  with 
its  fun-convulsed  occupant,  vanished  in  the  darkness. 


RUDGER  CLAWSON 


384      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

country  should  come  in  conflict  with  the  laws  of  God;  but 
whenever  they  do,  I  shall  invariably  choose  the  latter.  If  I 
did  not  so  express  myself,  I  should  feel  unworthy  of  the 
cause  I  represent.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ex- 
pressly says  that  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an 
establishment  of  religion  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof.  It  cannot  be  denied,  I  think,  that  marriage,  when  at- 
tended and  sanctioned  by  religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  is 
an  establishment  of  religion.  The  law  of  1862  and  the  Ed- 
munds Law  were  expressly  designed  to  operate  against  mar- 
riage as  practiced  and  believed  in  by  the  Latter-day  Saints. 
They  are  therefore  unconstitutional,  and  of  course  cannot 
command  the  respect  that  a  constitutional  law  would.  That 
is  all  I  have  to  say,  your  Honor." 

The  Judge  seemed  taken  by  surprise.  Leaning  back  in 
his  chair,  he  meditated  for  several  minutes,  and  then,  with 
a  look  of  deep  gravity,  said :  "The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  as  construed  by  the  Supreme  Court,  does  not  protect 
any  person  in  the  practice  of  polygamy.  While  all  men  have 
a  right  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
conscience,  and  to  entertain  any  religious  belief  that  their  con- 
science and  judgment  may  reasonably  dictate,  they  have  not 
the  right  to  engage  in  a  practice  which  the  American  people, 
through  the  laws  of  their  country,  declare  to  be  unlawful  and 
injurious  to  society."  The  fact  that  the  defendant  had  been 
taught  that  polygamy  was  right,  would  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration; but  so  also  would  his  deliberate  violation  of  the 
law.  "I  should  have  been  inclined  to  make  the  punishment 
lighter,"  added  the  Judge,  "had  you  not  openly  declared  that 
you  believe  it  right  to  violate  the  law." 

Upon  the  first  count  of  the  indictment — polygamy — it  was 
ordered  and  adjudged  that  the  defendant  pay  a  fine  of  five 
hundred  dollars,  and  that  he  be  imprisoned  for  a  period  ,of 
three  years  and  six  months.  Upon  the  second  count — un- 
lawful cohabitation — he  was  to  pay  a  fine  of  three  hundred 
dollars,  and  be  imprisoned  for  six  months;  the  second  term 
of  imprisonment  to  begin  at  the  expiration  of  the  first. 

The  Case  on  Appeal. — Mr.  Clawson  was  forthwith  con- 
veyed to  the  Penitentiary;  a  motion  made  by  his  attorneys, 
that  he  be  allowed  to  continue  on  bail  till  his  case  could  be 
heard  at  Washington,  being  denied  by  the  Judge.  The  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  Territory,  aftef  a  hearing  in  habeas  cor- 
pus, affirmed  the  decision  of  the  District  Court,  and  the  bail 
question  was  carried  on  appeal  to  the  Court  of  Last  Resort. 
The  main  issue — the  alleged  illegality  of  the  Grand  Jury- 
was  also  ruled  upon  by  the  Territorial  Supreme  Court,  and 
by  a  majority  opinion  the  decision  of  the  trial  court  was 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM.  3&5 

affirmed;  Associate  Justice  Emerson  withholding  an  expres- 
sion of  his  views.  The  case  was  then  taken  to  Washington. 

The  Final  Decree.— The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  decided  the  Clawson  case  early  in  1885.  The  bail  ques- 
tion was  disposed  of  on  the  19th  of  January,  and  the  Grand 
Jury  question  on  the  20th  of  April.  The  granting  of  bail  to 
the  defendant  pending  appeal  was  adjudged  to  be  discretion- 
ary with  the  court  that  tried  him.  The  decision  was  not 
unanimous;  Justices  Miller  and  Field  dissenting.  In  the 
other  issue,  which  had  gone  up  on  a  writ  of  error,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Court  were  a  unit.  They  held  that  the  Grand 
Jury  which  indicted  Rudger  Clawson  had  been  legally  formed, 
and  that  the  rejected  grand  jurors  were  properly  excluded. 
It  was  also  determined  that  the  District  Court  had  the  right, 
when  the  jury  list  was  exhausted,  to  go  outside  the  Poland 
Law  and  summon  jurors  on  open  venire. 

The  Evans  Case. — Another  polygamy  trial  soon  followed, 
one  in  which  Joseph  H.  Evans,  a  blacksmith,  was  the  party 
defendant.  His  conviction  was  an  easy  task;  his  plural  wife, 
Harriet  Parry,  and  her  mother,  Elizabeth  Parry,  being  willing 
witnesses  against  him.  Evans  was  fined  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars,  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  three  years 
and  six  months.  His  case  was  associated  with  that  of  Rud- 
ger Clawson  in  the  appeal  proceedings  that  followed. 

Peterson's  Predicament. — On  the  day  that  the  Evans  trial 
closed,  one  Andrew  Peterson  was  before  Judge  Zane,  charged 
with  polygamy  and  with  illegal  voting  as  a  polygamist.  He 
had  been  indicted  for  going  through  a  vicarious  marriage  cere- 
mony with  a  lady  friend,  a  widow,  who  was  thus  "sealed"  to 
her  departed  husband.  Mr.  Varian  made  known  these  facts 
to  the  Court,  and  moved  for  a  dismissal  of  the  indictment, 
stating  that  it  was  "a  celestial  marriage."  "A  celestial  mar- 
riage?" queried  Judgre  Zane.  "Well,  I  guess  that's  beyond 
our  jurisdiction;"  and  thereupon  dismissed  the  case  with  a 
benignant  smile. 

Caine  Versus  Smith. — November,  1884,  witnessed  the  re- 
currence of  the  regular  Delegate  election.  The  People's  Party 
were  again  victorious,  returning  John  T.  Caine  to  Congress 
by  a  vote  of  22,120  as  against  2,215,  the  latter  being  the 
vote  cast  for  the  Liberal  candidate,  Captain  Ransford  Smith, 
of  Ogden.  Comparison  of  figures  will  show  that  neither  party 
polled  as  heavily  as  at  the  election  two  years  before. 

Democracy  Triumphant. — The  triumph  of  the  National 
Democracy,  resulting  in  the  election  of  Grover  Cleveland  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  was  the  occasion  of -a  great 
popular  demonstration  at  Salt  Lake  City  and  in  other  parts  of 
Utah.  On  the  night  of  November  8th,  the  election  result  hav- 

24 


386      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


ing  been  ascertained,  bonfires  blazed,  rockets  soared,  bands 
played,  and  cannon  thundered,  while  mammoth  meetings  were 
addressed  by  "Mormon"  and  "Gentile"  orators — such  as  were 
willing  to  affiliate  for  that  purpose.  The  principal  gathering 
was  at  the  capital,  in  front  of  the  City  Hall,  where  the  mul- 
titude thronged  the  street,  while  the  speakers  held  forth  from 
the  balcony.  Among  these  were  Mayor  Jennings,  Delegate 
Caine,  Judge  W.  N.  Dusenberry,  Aurelius  Miner,  Hadley  D. 
Johnson,  T.  V.  Williams,  T.  B.  Lewis,  H.  J.  Faust,  and  Dr. 
j.  M.  Benedict.  Outside  the  Salt  Lake  Herald  office,  an- 
other meeting  was  addressed  by  Byron  Groo,  the  editor  of 
that  paper,  and  by  S.  R.  Thurman,  D.  C.  Dunbar  and  others. 
No  former  Presidential  election  had  caused  in  Utah  anything 
approaching  so  spontaneous  and  enthusiastic  an  outburst  of 
jjeneral  rejoicing.  Delegate  Caine,  who  was  chairman  of  the 
City  Hall  proceedings,  and  had  been  acting  for  some  time  as  a 
member  .of  the  Democratic  Congressional  Campaign  Com- 
mittee, sent  a  telegram  to  the  President-elect,  at  Albany,  New 
York,  informing  him  of  this  jubilation  in  his  honor,  and 

warmly  congratulating  him  up- 
on his  election. 

The  "Gentile"  Democrats, 
as  a  body,  had  no  part  nor  lot 
in  this  matter.  Factional  feeling 
was  too  strong  to  permit  of 
any  affiliation.  Independently, 
however,  they  assembled  at  the 
Walker  Opera  House,  on  the 
evening  of  November  19th,  and 
ratified  the  election  of  Cleve- 
land and  Hendricks.  Speeches 
were  made  by  Judge  Ros- 
borough,  Captain  Ransford 
Smith,  P.  L.  Williams,  Judge 
Sutherland,  Thomas  Marshall, 
L.  E.  Holden,  and  Judge  Can- 
field 

The  Young  Democracy. — 
Meantime,  as  an  indirect  result 
of  the  national  election,  a  new 
political  movement  had  been 
launched.  "The  Young  Democ- 

BYRON  GROO  racy,"    as    it    was    called,    or- 

ganized on  the  12th  of  No- 
vember "The  Democratic  Club  of  Utah."  It  was  designed 
as  a  rallying  point  for  the  young  men  of  the  Territory  whose 
views  were  such  that  they  could  not  conscientiously  train 


AN  APPROACHING  STORM. 


387 


either  with  the  People  or  with  the  Liberals.  Men  like 
Joseph  L.  Rawlins,  Alfales  Young,  Ben  Sheeks,  John  M. 
Young,  Joseph  T.  Kingsbury,  L.  S.  Hills,  A.  L.  Williams, 
Herbert  Pembroke,  and  George  A.  Meears  were  the  leading 
spirits  of  the  organization.  A  number  of  veterans,  includ- 
ing Judge  Sutherland,  Bolivar  Roberts,  and  C.  R.  Barratt,  also 
connected  themselves  with  the  cause.  The  Club  started  a 
paper  called  "The  Salt  Lake  Democrat."  But  the  movement 
was  not  popular;  it  was  premature.  After  the  general  elec- 
tion in  1885,  when  the  Young  Democracy  put  its  first  ticket 
in  the  field,  and,  with  all  other  opposition,  was  snowed 
under  by  the  People's  voters,  the  new  party  gradually  dwin- 
dled and  died — fell  asleep  to  await  the  political  resurrection 
that  came  a  few  years  later,  when  the  citizens  of  Utah  divided 
on  national  party  lines. 

Changes  in  the  Judiciary. — Contrary  to  general  expecta- 
tion, the  advent  of  the  Democratic  Administration  was  not 
signalized  by  sweeping  official  changes  in  this  Territory. 
President  Cleveland  was  very  deliberate  in  that  direction,  be- 
ing wedded  to  the  policy  of  = 

"Civil  Service  Reform."  So  ' 
long  as  Federal  officers  faith-  j 
fully  discharged  their  duties,  j 
and  were  not  "offensive  par- 
tisans," he  allowed  them  to  re- 
main in  place,  regardless  of 
their  political  affiliations.  One 
of  those  who  went  out  of  office, 
but  retired  of  his  own  volition, 
was  Associate  Justice  Emer- 
son, who,  being  a  staunch  Re- 
publican, resigned  in  March, 
1885,  at  the  incoming  of 
the  Cleveland  Administration. 
Judge  Emerson  did  not  look 
with  favor  upon  the  anti- 
polygamy  crusade.  He  was  op- 
posed to  making  a  specialty  of 
any  class  of  cases,  and  would 
treat  polygamy  like  any  other 
offense  against  the  laws.  His 
successor,  Judge  Powers,  was 
a  native  of  the  State  of  New  York,  but  had  been  for  many 
years  a  resident  of  Michigan.  Judge  Twiss,  retiring  in  Janu- 
ary of  that  year,  had  been  succeeded  by  his  predecessor,  Judge 
Boreman. 


JUDGE  SUTHERLAND 


XXVIII. 
UNDER  THE  HARROW. 

1885. 

The  "Mormon"  System  Assailed. — At  the  beginning  of 
operations  under  the  anti-polygamy  laws  those  first  called  to 
account  were  persons  of  little  prominence,  whose  domestic 
affairs  were  revealed  by  informers  equally  or  entirely  un- 
known. Soon,  however,  it  was  determined  to  assail  the  head 
and  front  of  the  "Mormon"  system,  bringing  such  a  pressure 
to  bear  upon  the  chief  men  of  the  Church  that  they  would 
feel  compelled  to  yield  to  the  demands  made  upon  them,  and 
influence  others  to  follow  their  example.  A  rigorous  and  stern 
policy  was  thought  to  be  necessary,  in  order  to  insure  speedy 
results.  Such  a  policy  was  accordingly  pursued. 

Bygones  Should  be  Bygones. — The  narration  of  the  un- 
pleasant facts  recorded  in  this  volume  is  not  intended  to  stir 
up  bitter  memories  or  perpetuate  senseless  feuds  and  dif- 
ferences. Such  events  could  never  happen  again.  They  be- 
long to  the  dead  past.  No  present-day  person  or  class  is 
held  responsible  for  them,  and  bygones  should  be  treated  as 
bygones.  Nevertheless,  happen  they  did — the  page  of  history 
contains  them — and  no  record  of  those  times  would  be  com- 
plete if  they  were  omitted.  This  is  the  reason,  and  the  only 
reason,  for  their  reproduction  here. 

Methods  of  the  Crusade. — It  was  assumed  that  most  of 
the  "Mormon"  leaders  practiced  plural  marriage,  and  that 
those,  who  did  not,  were  at  least  believers  in  its  rightfulness. 
Belief,  if  expressed  in  a  defense  of  the  doctrine,  was  deemed 
by  some  almost  equivalent  to  the  practice.  Against  the  men 
who  were  regarded  as  "pillars  of  the  Church,"  the  Govern- 
ment prosecutors  prepared  to  move.  Presidents,  Apostles, 
Bishops,  and  other  prominent  Elders  must  be  made  to  feel  the 
heavy  hand  of  the  law,  in  order  to  induce  a  declaration  of  sur- 
render. To  reach  the  desired  end,  the  local  courts  proceeded 
to  extreme  lengths,  so  extreme  that  their  acts,  in  some  in- 
stances, were  repudiated  and  nullified  by  the  higher  powers. 

As  a  result  of  the  harsh  enforcement  of  the  law,  the  whole 
community  was  terrorized.  Special  Government  funds  having 
been  provided  for  the  purpose,  a  large  force  of  deputy  mar- 
shals was  employed,  and  a  system  of  espionage  inaugurated. 
"Hunting  cohabs"  became  a  lucrative  employment.  Paid  in- 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  389 

formers,  men  and  women,  were  set  to  work  to  ferret  out  of- 
fenses punishable  under  the  recently  enacted  Congressional 
legislation.  Some  of  these  assumed  the  role  of  peddlers,  or  of 
tramps,  imposing  upon  the  good  feelings  of  those  whom  they 
sought  to  betray.  Others  passed  themselves  off  as  tourists 
intent  upon  gathering  information  respecting  the  country  and 
its  resources.  Children  going  to  or  returning  from  school 
were  stopped  by  strangers  upon  the  street  and  interrogated 
concerning  the  relations  and  acts  of  their  parents.  At  night 
dark  forms  prowled  around  people's  premises,  peering  into 
windows,  or  watching  for  the  opening  of  doors,  to  catch  glimp- 
ses of  persons  supposed  to  be  inside.  More  than  one  of  the 
hirelings  thrust  themselves  into  sick  rooms  and  women's  bed 
chambers,  rousing  the  sleepers  by  pulling  the  bed  clothes  from 
off  them.  If  admittance  was  refused,  houses  would  be  broken 
into.  Delicate  and  refined  women,  about  to  become  mothers 
or  with  infants  in  arms,  were  awakened  at  unseemly  hours  and 
conveyed  long  distances  through  the  night,  to  be  arraigned 
before  United  States  Commissioners.  Male  fugitives,  if  they 
did  not  immediately  surrender  when  commanded,  were  fired 
upon.  All  these  statements  are  susceptible  of  proof;  many 
of  them  being  referred  to  in  public  documents  and  newspapers 
of  that  period. 

The  regular  officers,  as  a  rule,  performed  their  duties  in  a 
considerate  manner.  But  included  among  or  associated  with 
them  were  a  number  of  swaggering  ruffians,  blustering,  threat- 
ening, brandishing  revolvers,  frightening  women  and  children 
—in  short,  making  themselves  as  objectionable  as  possible  to 
the  victims  of  their  relentless  pursuit.  Such  misconduct  was 
not  confined  to  Utah.  It  was  especially  manifest  in  Idaho, 
where  the  crusade  was  carried  on  with  vindictive  rigor. 

Connected  with  the  courts  was  a  regularly  employed  of- 
ficial accuser,  but  the  duties  of  this  functionary  were  mostly 
formal,  the  complaints  signed  by  him  being  almost  invariably 
second  hand.  Aside  from  the  knowledge  thus  obtained,  he 
knew  no  more  in  most  cases  about  the  persons  he  complained 
of,  than  about  the  inhabitants  of  Jupiter  or  Mars.  The  U.  S. 
Marshal  and  his  deputies  were  wont  to  say  that  their  success 
in  discovering  cases  liable  to  prosecution  was  owing  less  to 
official  sagacity  than  to  the  voluntary  action  of  men's  neigh- 
bors or  former  friends,  who,  for  various  reasons,  were  induced 
to  lodge  information  against  them.  Zeal  for  the  law  played  its 
part,  but  frequently  it  was  some  private  grudge  or  other  un- 
worthy motive  that  inspired  the  delator.  All  this,  however, 
was  to  be  expected  under  such  conditions. 

Special  Police  and  Defense  Fund. — To  guard  homes  and 
families  against  the  aggressions  of  the  night  prowlers,  bodies 


390      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  special  police  were  organized,  and  at  times  the  hunters 
became  the  hunted.  That  so  little  friction  and  violence 
came  out  of  such  a  situation,  is  a  marvel,  and  one  that  speaks 
trumpet-tongued  for  the  good  order  and  self-control  of  the 
tantalized  and  trodden  community.  They  were  better  men 
and  women  than  those  who  trampled  upon  them.  It  is  doubt- 
ful that  any  other  American  community  would  have  endured 
so  patiently  under  similar  circumstances.  No  Ku  Klux  Klan 
arose  in  Utah,  as  it  did  in  the  South  during  the  Reconstruction 
regime.  The  dreadful  "Danites"  again  failed  to  appear,  prov- 
ing once  more  the  falsity  of  the  tales  as  to  their  existence  and 
unspeakable  atrocities. 

One  reason — though  not  the  main  one — why  the  people 
were  patient,  was  the  well  founded  suspicion  that  violent  re- 
sistance was  precisely  what  the  opposition  most  desired.  They 
knew  that  any  deed  of  retaliation  resulting  in  the  serious  in- 
jury of  even  a  spy,  would  be  magnified  a  hundred  fold  and 
used  as  an  argument,  for  the  abrogation  of  civil  government 
and  the  institution  of  martial  law  in  the  already  afflicted 
Territory.  The  spies  and  spotters  were  also  aware  of  this 
fact,  and  took  advantage  of  it  with  a  boldness  resembling' 
bravery,  a  courage  more  apparent  than  real.  Their  pathway, 
wet  with  the  tears  of  women  and  children,  was  not  strewn  with 
many  perils  to  themselves. 

Among  the  measures  adopted  by  those  against  whom 
the  Edmunds  Law  was  enforced,  was  a  defense  fund,  in- 
stituted to  pay  the  legal  expenses  and  in  a  few  instances 
the  fines  of  persons  unable  to  bear  the  heavy  financial  burdens 
entailed  upon  them  by  these  prosecutions.  The  creation  of 
this  fund  was  characterized  by  those  hostile  to  it  as  "a  banding 
together  of  criminals  to  defeat  the  ends  of  justice."  It  was 
charged  that  the  whole  "Mormon"  community  was  "in  open 
hostility  and  rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United 
States." 

Those  who  were  "under  the  harrow"  took  a  different  view. 
They  felt  that  they  had  the  right,  and  that  it  was  their  duty, 
to  defend  themselves  in  every  legitimate  way;  that  something 
more  was  required  of  them  than  "immediate  and  unconditional 
surrender"  to  what  they  considered  an  unrighteous  law,  the 
repeal  of  which  was  hoped  for,  and  seemed  to  them  probable, 
if  the  issues  involved  were  not  too  readily  relinquished.  This 
had  been  the  case  with  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  former 
years — a  Congressional  statute  pronounced  constitutional  by 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Nation,  but  afterwards  decided  to  be 
unconstitutional  by  the  same  high  tribunal.  Might  it  not  be  so 
with  the  Edmunds  Law?  This  was  the  true  "Mormon"  posi- 
tion, and  those  who  stood  upon  that  ground  were  unable  to 


UNDER  THE  HARROW. 


391 


see  how  such  an  attitude  placed  them  "in  open  hostility  and  re- 
bellion against  the  Government."  Nor  is  the  proposition 
clear  to  the  eye  of  history  even  at  the  present  time. 

Outside  of  Utah. — Simultaneously  with  the  commence- 
ment in  Utah  of  the  "Crusade"  or  "Raid"— for  both  terms 
were  used  to  describe  it — similar  activities,  suggesting  if  not 
indicating  a  common  under- 
standing, were  noticeable  in 
Idaho  and  Arizona,  in  both  of 
which  Territories  "Mormon" 
colonists  had  founded  flourish- 
ing settlements.  During  the 
winter  of  1884-1885,  the  Idaho 
Legislature  enacted  a  law  pro- 
viding that  no  polygamist,  or 
any  person  who  was  a  member 
of  any  order,  organization,  or 
association  which  taught,  ad- 
vised, counseled,  or  encouraged 
its  members  to  practice  polyg- 
amy, should  be  permitted  to 
vote  at  any  election,  or  to  hold 
any  office  of  honor,  trust,  or 
profit  within  that  Territory. 
This  law  incorporated  a  test 
oath  covering  these  points,  and 
the  taking  of  the  oath  was  re- 
quired of  all  citizens,  as  a  con- 
dition precedent  to  voting  or 
holding  office.  The  effect  of 
this  enactment  was  to  disfranchise  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two 
thousand  citizens,  most  of  whom  had  broken  no  law,  but  were 
simply  members  of  an  unpopular  Church.  The  act  of  disfran- 
cliisement  was  followed  by  the  arrest,  conviction  and  impris- 
onment of  many  persons.  Among  those  prosecuted  under  the 
Edmunds  Law  in  Idaho  were  William  D.  Hendricks  and  Wil- 
liam Budge,  presidents  respectively  of  the  Oneida  and  Bear 
Lake  Stakes  of  Zion.*  President  Budge,  charged  with  unlaw- 
ful cohabitation,  was  tried  and  acquitted  at  Blackfoot.f 
President  Hendricks  went  into  exile,  and  was  next  heard 


WILLIAM  BUDGE. 


*The  colonization  of  the  Bear  Lake  country  has  been  mentioned 
in  a  former  chapter.  Preston  and  other  "Mormon"  towns  in  Oneida 
and  contiguous  counties,  were  founded  in  1879  and  during  subsequent 
years. 

fin  the  Budge  case  unusual  leniency  was  shown.  Judge  Hayes 
told  the  trial  jury  that  the  evidence  did  not  justify  conviction,  and 
that  if  they  brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty  he  would  set  it  aside. 


392     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  in  Mexico.  Elder  George  C.  Parkinson,  one  of  the 
Oneida  Stake  Presidency,  was  proceeded  against  upon  the 
charge  of  secreting  a  suspect  of  whom  the  officers  were  in 
search.  Parkinson  stoutly  asserted  his  innocence,  but  was 
convicted  on  flimsy  circumstantial  evidence  and  sentenced  to 
a  year's  imprisonment  in  the  Penitentiary  at  Boise.  The 
attorney  who  prosecuted  him,  doubting  the  justice  of  the  judg- 
ment, afterwards  helped  to  procure  a  pardon  for  him  from  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Arizona  imitated  Idaho  in  the  matter  of  a  test  oath  dis- 
franchising her  "Mormon"  citizens.  But  it  did  not  remain  per- 
manently upon  the  statute  books.  Governor  Zulick  recom- 
mended its  repeal,  and  the  Legislature  acted  upon  his  sug- 
gestion. Still,  the  Edmunds  Law  was  enforced  there  for  some 
time  with  much  severity.  The  first  offenders  dealt  with  in  Ari- 
zona were  A.  M.  Tenney,  P.  J.  Christofferson,  and  C.  I.  Kempe. 
These  Elders,  in  December,  1884,  were  sentenced  by  Judge  Sum- 
ner  Howard,  former  United  States  Attorney  for  Utah,  each  to 
pay  a  fine  of  five  hundred  dollars  and  to  serve  three  years  and 
six  months  in  prison  at  hard  labor.  Their  offense  was  unlaw- 
ful cohabitation,  but  the  Court  construed  it  as  polygamy,  and 
punished  it  as  such.  William  J.  Flake  and  Jens  N.  Skou- 
sen,  pleading  guilty  to  the  minor  charge,  were  each  heavily 
fined  and  imprisoned.  The  first  three  of  these  five  defendants 
were  sent  to  the  Detroit  House  of  Correction,  two  thousand 
miles  from  the  scene  of  their  conviction — Prescott,  Arizona; 
but  were  brought  back  to  that  Territory  before  the  expiration 
of  their  terms.  The  others  were  placed  in  the  Penitentiary  at 
Yuma. 

The  School  Tax  Case. — Parallel  with  some  of  these  prose- 
cutions, an  important  civil  case  arose  in  the  Seventh  School 
District  of  Salt  Lake  City.  There  had  been  a  demand  for  a  new 
school  house  in  that  locality,  the  old  building  having  become 
inadequate,  and  at  a  meeting  called  for  the  purpose  it  was  pro- 
posed to  levy  a  special  tax  of  one  per  cent  upon  the  property  in 
the  district,  to  provide  means  for  the  erection  of  a  more  suit- 
able structure.  Some  of  the  "Gentiles"  opposed  the  tax  on  the 
ground  that  the  public  schools  of  Utah  were  sectarian  in  char- 
acter. It  was  charged  that  the  trustees  would  employ  none 
but  "Mormon'  teachers,  and  that  these  teachers  sought  to  dis- 
seminate their  religious  doctrines  among  the  pupils.  At  the 
meeting  where  the  tax  was  levied  Judge  John  R.  McBride — 
already  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  Campbell-Cannon 
contest — warned  polygamists  not  to  vote,  the  occasion  being, 
according  to  his  logic,  "an  election  within  the  meaning  of  the 
Edmunds  Law."  The  majority  in  the  district,  scouting  this 
notion,  and  denying  the  allegation  as  to  the  sectarian  char- 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  393 

acter  of  the  schools,  voted  the  tax  and  instructed  the  trustees 
to  collect  it.  The  trustees  were  Isaac  M.  Waddell,  Henry 
Wallace  and  Benjamin  G.  Raybould ;  the  last  named  a  non- 
"Mormon."  Application  was  made  for  an  injunction  to  re- 
strain the  collection  of  the  tax,  and  the  case  went  into  the 
District  Court. 

Meantime  the  question  as  to  whether  a  meeting1  called  to 
levy  a  school  tax  could  properly  be  considered  an  election,  was 
presented  to  the  Utah  Commission  and  by  that  body  submitted 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Honorable  Henry  M.  Teller. 
He  laid  it  before  United  States  Attorney  General  Brewster, 
who,  after  informing  the  Utah  Commission  that  it  had  no  jur- 
isdiction in  the  matter,  expressed  the  opinion  that  a  meeting  of 
that  kind  was  not  an  election  within  the  meaning  of  the  Ed- 
munds Law,  and  that  polygamists  as  well  as  monogamists 
could  vote  on  such  an  occasion,  provided  they  were  property 
tax  payers  and  residents  of  the  school  district  in  which  the 
meeting  was  held. 

Judge  Zane  and  the  Law. — The  main  question,  involving 
the  legality  of  the  tax  and  the  alleged  pro-"Mormon"  char- 
acter of  the  schools,  came  before  Chief  Justice  Zane  early  in 
January,  1885.  For  an  entire  week,  polygamy,  priestcraft, 
Church  and  State,  and  the  whole  burning  issue  of  "Gentileism" 
versus  "Mormonism"  occupied  the  time  of  the  court  and  no 
small  share  of  the  attention  of  the  public.  Old  sermons  were 
read,  doctrinal  works  cited,  witnesses  examined,  and  speeches 
made,  until  Judge,  attorneys,  spectators,  and  the  subject  were 
all  equally  exhausted.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  hearing  the 
Court  held  it  to  have  been  substantially  proved  that  the  au- 
thorities of  the  "Mormon"  Church  claimed  the  right  to  counsel 
their  followers  in  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  affairs ;  and 
that  as  a  general  rule,  though  not  in  all  cases,  "Mormons"  [the 
vast  majority  in  Utah]  had  been  employed  to  teach  in  the 
public  schools;  but  it  had  not  been  shown  that  it  was  a  com- 
mon practice  to  give  sectarian  instructions  in  these  schools. 
The  weight  of  evidence  was  against  the  proposition  that  sec- 
tarian doctrines  had  been  or  would  be  taught  in  the  Seventh 
District  School,  and  as  the  proposed  tax  was  in  pursuance  of 
a  valid  law  it  was  collectable. 

Judge  Zane  was  always  strenuous  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  law.  He  upheld  the  civil  authorities  in  their  efforts  to  re- 
strain the  liquor  traffic,  and  to  abolish  gambling  and  other 
evils.  Some  of  his  predecessors  and  their  associates  had  been 
far  less  mindful  of  the  general  welfare. 

Angus  M.  Cannon's  Arrest. — About  this  time  the  move- 
ment began  for  the  prosecution  of  prominent  churchmen 
known  or  "understood  to  be"  polygamists.  The  first  proceeded 


394      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


against  was  Angus  M.  Cannon,  President  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Stake  of  Zion.  He  was  charged  with  polygamy  and  unlawful 
cohabitation,  and  had  a  preliminary  hearing  before  United 
States  Commissioner  William  McKay,  one  of  the  most  active 
officials  of  his  class  and  time.  This  was  in  the  latter  part 
of  January.  The  evidence  showed  that  Mr.  Cannon  recog- 
nized three  women  as  his  wives,  and  that  he  had  married  them 
before  the  enactment  of  the  Edmunds  Law.  Two  of  his 
families  had  suites  of  rooms  in  one  house,  and  the  other 
family  occupied  a  separate  domicile.  The  defendant  admitted 

taking  meals  with  his  families 
in  the  double  house,  where  he 
had  a  sleeping  apartment,  but 
denied  living  with  any  of  his 
wives  after  the  Edmunds  Law 
went  into  effect.  This  was  his 
answer  to  the  charge  of  unlaw- 
ful cohabitation.  As  for  polyg- 
amy, the  woman  in  the  case 
was  not  found  when  the  officers 
went  in  quest  of  her,  and  that 
part  of  the  complaint  was  dis- 
missed. The  defendant  was 
held  in  bonds  to  await  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Grand  Jury,  which 
subsequently  indicted  him. 

Unavailing  Precautions. — - 
The  defense  set  up  by  the  pre- 
siding officer  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Stake  was  practically  the  same 
as  had  been  determined  on  by 
the  Church  leaders  in  general. 
Immediately  after  the  enact- 
ment of  the  Edmunds  Law, 
President  Taylor  and  others 

had  taken  steps  to  place  themselves  upon  what  they  considered 
"the  safe  side  of  the  line,"  While  not  putting  away  their 
wives  or  failing  to  provide  for  them  and  their  children,  each 
gave  to  his  several  families,  so  far  as  possible,  separate  homes, 
and  ceased  to  live  with  them.  The  President,  for  instance, 
occupied  his  official  residence,  the  Gardo  House,  called  by 
some  "The  Amelia  Palace,"  where  his  widowed  sister,  Mrs. 
Agnes  Taylor  Schwartz,  had  domestic  charge ;  his  families, 
living  in  their  own  homes  at  a  distance.  Such  precautions, 
however,  availed  nothing. 

In  Arizona  and  Mexico. — At  the  time  of  Elder  Cannon's 
arrest  the  head  of  the  Church  was  absent  on  a  visit  to  the 


ANGUS  M.   CANNON. 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  395 

"Mormon"  settlements  in  Arizona,  whither  he  had  gone  to 
counsel  and  comfort  his  people  residing  in  that  part.  Presi- 
dent Taylor  was  accompanied  by  his  second  counselor,  Presi- 
dent Joseph  F.  Smith,  and  by  Erastus  Snow,  Brigham  Young 
Jr.,  Francis  M.  Lyman  and  other  Elders.  At  St.  David,  in  the 
southeastern  part  of  that  Territory,  they  met  the  presiding 
officers  of  the  four  Arizona  Stakes,  and  learned  particulars  of 
the  local  situation.  The  Presidency  advised  those  who  were 
liable  to  prosecution  to  keep  out  of  the  way  so  long  as  the 
law  was  unjustly  administered.* 

Arrangements  were  made  for  the  purchase  of  lands  in 
Mexico,  upon  which  families  that  were  hunted  and  driven 
might  settle.  Sites  were  selected  for  that  purpose  in  the  State 
of  Chihuahua,  where  some  of  the  exiles  were  already  en- 
camped, preparatory  to  establishing  permanent  homes.  At 
Hermosillo,  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Sonora,  the  "Mormon" 
leader  and  his  party  were  kindly  received  by  Governor  Torres. f 

President  Taylor's  Farewell. — While  at  San  Francisco, 
journeying  homeward,  President  Taylor  was  warned  that  his 
arrest  had  been  determined  on  and  that  it  would  not  be  safe 
for  him  to  return  to  Utah.  Nevertheless  he  started  at  once 
ior  Salt  Lake  City.  Upon  arriving  home,  however,  he  found 
the  situation  such  as  to  compel  him  to  take  his  own  counsel 
and  keep  out  of  the  way  of  what  he  deemed  an  improper  ad- 
ministration of  the  law.  At  the  Tabernacle,  on  Sunday,  Feb- 
ruary 1st,  he  preached  his  farewell  discourse  and  made  his 
last  appearance  in  public.  Detailing  the  principal  incidents  of 

*St.  David  and  other  "Mormon"  towns  in  the  San  Pedro  Valley 
had  been  founded  in  1877,  the  year  after  the  establishment  of  similar 
settlements  along  the  Little  Colorado  river,  where  Lot  Smith  presided, 
with  Jacob  Hamblin  and  Lorenzo  H.  Hatch  as  his  counselors.  The 
San  Pedro  colonists  and  others  in  the  Gila  Valley  were  organized  into 
a  Stake,  with  Christopher  Layton,  David  P.  Kimball  and  James  H. 
Martineau  presiding.  In  1878  the  Salt  River  Valley  was  colonized, 
and  Alexander  F.  McDonald,  Henry  C.  Rogers  and  Charles  I.  Robson 
became  the  Stake  presidency.  Subsequently  the  Little  Colorado  set- 
tlements were  divided  into  two  Stakes,  with  David  K.  Udall  and  Jesse 
N.  Smith  as  the  respective  presidents. 

t"Mormon"  missionaries  had  been  operating  in  Mexico  since  1875, 
and  a  mission  had  been  opened  at  the  City  of  Mexico  by  Moses 
Thatcher,  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve,  in  1879.  One  of  Elder 
Thatcher's  companions,  on  a  subsequent  visit  to  that  country,  was 
Feramorz  L.  Young,  son  of  President  Brigham  Young,  who  died  and 
was  buried  at  sea  while  crossing  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  homeward  bound, 
September  28,  1881.  A  plan  to  establish  "Mormon"  colonies  in 
Mexico  was  projected  about  that  time,  but  not  acted  upon.  At  a  later 
period  (1885)  colonists  settled  on  lands  subsequently  purchased  by 
the  Church,  and  in  1895  the  Juarez  Stake  was  organized.  Amorig  the 
most  conspicuous  Utah  names  connected  with  "Mormon"  affairs  in 
Mexico  are  Francis  M.  Lyman,  Alexander  F.  McDonald,  and  Anthony 
W.  Ivins. 


396      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

his  visit  to  Arizona,  with  the  distress  and  sufferings  that  he 
had  witnessed  there,  he  now  repeated  the  advice  then  given, 
applying  it  to  all  in  similar  situations.  He  likewise  counseled 
the  people  to  be  patient  and  commit  no  violence,  even  if  the 
officers  of  the  law  overstepped  the  bounds  of  their  authority. 

In  Retirement. — The  venerable  leader  then  retired  from 
public  view.  "Taking  the  underground,"  it  was  termed ;  a 
phrase  borrowed  from  national  history  of  pre-emancipation 
times,  and  having  reference  to  a  method  employed  by  the 
Abolitionists  to  help  fugitive  slaves  maintain  their  freedom. 
Many  other  prominent  men  did  likewise.* 

From  time  to  time  the  First  Presidency  communicated 
with  the  Church  by  means  of  epistles,  which  were  read  at  the 
Annual  or  Semi-annual  Conferences.  These  were  usually 
held,  the  former  in  April,  the  latter  in  October,  and  generally 
at  Salt  Lake  City,  though  there  were  deviations  from  this  rule, 
when  such  towns  as  Provo  and  Logan  became  the  scenes  of 
like  gatherings.  Eventually  most  of  the  Church  leaders  re- 
appeared in  public,  but  President  Taylor  was  an  exception. 
Only  by  certain  members  of  his  family  and  a  few  intimate 
friends,  who  accompanied  him  in  his  secret  journeyings  from 
place  to  place,  acting  as  guards  or  messengers  for  him  and  his 
fellow  exiles,  was  he  again  seen  alive.  Persistent  efforts  were 
put  forth  for  the  apprehension  of  the  General  Authorities. 
The  President's  Office,  the  Gardo  House,  the  Historian's 
Office,  and  various  private  homes  suspected  of  sheltering  them, 
were  searched,  some  of  them  repeatedly,  by  the  U.  S.  Marshal 
and  his  deputies;  but  all  in  vain — the  men  most  "wanted"  were 
well  out  of  the  way. 

The  Edmunds  Law  Declared  Constitutional. — Late  in 
March,  1885,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  rendered 
its  decision  in  the  case  of  Murphy  versus  Ramsey.  It  declared 
the  Edmunds  Law  constitutional,  but  nullified  the  test  oath 
formulated  by  the  Utah  Commission.  That  Board,  according 
to  this  decision,  had  no  lawful  power  to  prescribe  conditions 
for  registration  or  voting.  One  effect  of  the  decree  was  to 
shatter  the  doctrine  "once  a  polygamist  always  a  polygamist." 
Henceforth  men  and  women  who  had  formerly  lived  in  plural 
marriage,  but  had  ceased  to  so  live,  might  register  and  vote. 
Nevertheless  a  man  was  still  a  polygamist  who,  though  he 
might  be  living  with  but  one  wife,  continued  to  maintain  the 

*"The  'underground  railway'  was  in  active  operation  by  1838.  A 
constant  northward  movement  of  slaves  went  on.  From  abolitionist 
to  abolitionist,  at  the  chain  of  stations  (private  homes  usually  a  night's 
journey  apart)  the  fleeing  slaves  were  passed  until  they  were  safe 
from  pursuit,  in  Canada." — Guy  Carlton  Lee,  in  "True  History  of  the 
Civil  War"  (p.  82). 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  397 

relation  of  husband  to  a  plurality  of  wives,  and  had  not  in 
some  way  dissolved  that  relation.  In  what  way,  the  Court  de- 
clined to  specify.  The  "Mormons"  themselves  believed  their 
marriages  indissoluble,  being  "for  eternity,"  and  not  merely 
"for  time." 

The  "Promise  to  Obey." — The  Murphy-Ramsey  decision 
strengthened  the  hands  of  the  Federal  Courts  in  the  Terri- 
tories. As  if  acting  upon  the  suggestion  from  Washington 
relative  to  the  dissolution  of  plural  marriage  relations,  some  of 
the  District  Judges  now  began  to  require  from  polygamous 
defendants  arraigned  before  them,  a  promise  that  they  would 
discontinue  such  relations  and  never  again  resume  them.  If 
they  refused  to  make  this  promise,  as  most  of  them  did,  their 
punishment  was  made  heavier  on  account  of  their  unbending 
attitude.  On  the  other  hand,  a  "promise  to  obey"  brought  a 
lighter  penalty,  and  in  some  instances  a  suspension  of  sentence 
"during  good  behavior." 

Constructive  Cohabitation. — The  Supreme  Court  ruling 
may  have  suggested  another  thought  to  the  minds  of  those 
whose  duty  it  was  to  interpret  and  enforce  the  Edmunds  Law 
in  Utah.  Up  to  that  time  what  constituted  "unlawful  cohabi- 
tation" had  been  a  puzzling  question  to  the  local  courts  and 
their  prosecuting  officers.  Judge  Zane  remarked  that  the  term 
was  "capable  of  as  many  meanings  as  a  chameleon  was  of 
colors."  It  had  been  supposed,  however,  that  sexual  intimacy 
was  a  necessary  element  of  the  offense,  and  the  Chief  Justice 
in  his  decisions  had  virtually  so  held.  But  now  a  new  light 
seemed  to  be  thrown  upon  the  subject.  If  a  man  living  with 
but  one  wife  was  in  polygamy  if  he  acknowledged  other 
women  as  his  wives,  bound  to  him,  as  he  believed,  by  ties 
eternal  and  indissoluble,  would  not  a  similar  rule  apply  to  un- 
lawful cohabitation?  Was  not  a  man  guilty  of  that  offense 
if  he  merely  admitted  himself  to  be  the  husband  of  a  plurality 
of  wives?  We  shall  see  how  this  thought  materialized — how 
the  suggestion  bore  fruit. 

Purpose  of  the  Prosecution. — But  why  all  these  strained 
constructions,  and  the  unusual  procedure  that  accompanied 
them?  Why  would  not  the  ordinary  course  and  methods 
suffice?  The  main  reason  was  that  the  Federal  Courts  lacked 
confidence  in  their  ability  to  solve  the  "Mormon  Problem"  in. 
any  other  way  than  the  one  pursued.  They  were  determined 
to  succeed,  whatever  the  strain,  whatever  the  innovation,  so 
long  as  they  kept  within  hailing  distance  of  the  statute  under 
which  they  operated.  As  already  shown,  those  who  conducted 
these  prosecutions  had  a  special,  definite  object  in  view.  The 
polygamy  of  "John  Doe,"  or  the  immorality  of  "Richard  Roe," 


398      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

was  but  a  minor  issue  in  the  controversy.  The  Edmunds 
Law,  as  interpreted  by  the  Courts,  had  been  enacted  to  put 
down  plural  marriage.  Anything  to  stop  it — was  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  against  polygamy.  But  that  was  not  all.  "The 
Mormon  Power"  must  be  made  to  feel  the  pressure — must  be 
pushed  to  the  wall  until  willing  to  surrender.  That  was  the 
paramount  issue.  The  Church  as  a  whole,  rather  than  any 
individual  member  of  it,  was  the  target  aimed  at.  Hence  the 
term  "Crusade" — objected  to  by  some,  but  approved  by  others 
— as  descriptive  of  these  extraordinary  proceedings.  This  fact 
borne  in  mind  will  explain  many  things  referred  to  in  the  pres- 
ent narrative,  and  show  the  real  reason  for  their  occurrence. 

The  Cannon  Trial. — Angus  M.  Cannon  was  tried  -before 
Chief  Justice  Zane  late  in  April,  the  month  following  the  de- 
livery of  the  Murphy-Ramsey  decision.  It  being  early  in  the 
year  and  the  jury  list  unexhausted,  the  open  venire  process 
was  not  resorted  to,  but  jurors,  before  being  accepted,  were 
required  to  answer  affirmatively  the  question :  "Are  you  in 
sympathy  with  the  prosecution?"  During  the  progress  of  the 
trial  the  proposition  was  advanced  that  sexual  intimacy  was 
not  an  essential  element  of  unlawful  cohabitation,  that  offense 
being  complete  if  a  man  and  woman  claiming  to  be  husband 
and  wife  lived  at  one  time  in  the  same  house. 

This  doctrine  had  already  been  hinted  at  by  U.  S.  Com- 
missioner McKay,  when  Mr.  Cannon  was  before  him  for  pre- 
liminary examination.  The  Commissioner,  however,  had  not 
gone  quite  so  far ;  he  held  that  sexual  intimacy  was  to  be  pre- 
sumed under  such  circumstances.  But  now  it  was  held  that 
it  was  not  even  necessary  to  presume  it.  And  upon  this  theory 
it  was  proposed  to  prosecute,  and  of  course  to  convict,  the  de- 
fendant in  the  Cannon  case,  he  having  already  confessed  to 
sitting  at  table  and  occupying  at  times  a  separate  room  under 
the  same  roof  that  sheltered  two  of  his  wives.  The  change  of 
attitude  involved  in  the  new  construction  evoked  much  com- 
ment, the  prosecuting  officers,  in  dealing  with  other  polyg- 
amous defendants,  having  sought  with  much  earnestness  to  se- 
cure proof  of  the  kind  now  declared  by  them  unnecessary. 

Untrodden  Ways. — It  was  plain  that  the  Federal  Courts 
were  floundering.  They  scarcely  knew  what  to  do — as  more 
than  one  of  their  officers  afterwards  admitted,  privately.  A 
most  difficult  task  had  been  assigned  them — far  more  difficult 
than  at  first  appeared.  It  was  nothing  less  than  the  overthrow 
of  "an  establishment  of  religion;"  for  that  conviction,  though 
scouted  by  Congress  and  the  Courts,  was  still  in  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  the  "Mormon"  people.  Precedents  were  rare,  if 
not  entirely  lacking,  in  the  whole  realm  of  American  jurispru- 
dence ;  and  guesswork  played  its  part,  perhaps  as  never  before, 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  399 

in  the  interpretation  of  an  ambiguous  statute.  That  judges 
and  prosecutors  theorized,  experimented,  groped  their  way, 
and  occasionally  stumbled  on  the  untried  path,  or  in  the  tan- 
gled wilderness  through  which  they  were  hewing  a  path,  ought 
to  surprise  no  one. 

Attorneys'  Views. — At  the  Cannon  trial  the  meaning  of 
"unlawful  cohabitation"  was  lengthily  discussed.  Assistant 
U.  S.  Attorney  Varian  argued  that  Congress,  through  the  Ed- 
munds Act,  had  intended  to  strike  only  at  plural  marriage, 
leaving  fornication,  adultery,  and  other  sexual  offenses  to  be 
dealt  with  under  the  local  laws.  Cohabitation,  in  the  sense 
contemplated  by  Congress,  could  not  exist  outside  the  mar- 
riage relation ;  but  it  was  not  necessary  to  prove  a  marriage 
ceremony  in  such  cases.  If  a  man  claimed  two  or  more  women 
as  his  wives,  and  held  them  out  to  the  world  as  such,  he  was 
guilty  of  unlawful  cohabitation. 

Counsel  for  the  defense,  Sutherland,  Kirkpatrick,  and 
Brown,  combatted  Mr.  Varian's  argument,  contending  that  the 
Edmunds  Law  was  designed  to  prevent  polygamous  marriages 
and  the  continuance  of  polygamous  relations,  so  that  no  more 
polygamous  children  might  be  born.  It  subjected  to  punish- 
ment those  who  cohabited  sexually  with  theif  plural  wives, 
not  those  who  merely  visited  or  supported  them,  and  looked 
•after  their  children.  Judge  Zane  was  quoted  as  having  given 
the  proper  meaning  to  cohabitation  while  charging  the  jury 
in  the  Clawson  case,  when  he  construed  it  to  be  "the  living 
together  of  a  man  and  a  woman  as  husband  and  wife,  or  under 
such  circumstances  as  induces  a  reasonable  belief  of  sexual 
intercourse."  In  another  case,  that  of  Orson  P.  Arnold,  the 
Chief  Justice  had  said :  "Polygamy  is  a  man's  treating  more 
than  one  woman  as  his  wives  according  to  the  forms  of  mar- 
riage, and  unlawful  cohabitation  is  a  man's  treating  more  than 
one  woman  as  his  wives  without  going  through  those  forms." 
This  indicated  that  the  Judge,  at  that  time,  was  not  in  harmony 
with  the  view  that  the  Edmunds  Law  was  aimed  only  at  plural 
marriage. 

District  Attorney  Dickson  closed  the  debate.  He  main- 
tained that  a  polygamist  would  continue  in  that  status  if  he 
only  visited  and  supported  his  plural  wife.  The  law,  how- 
ever, would  not  interfere  with  him  if  he  merely  supported  her 
and  looked  after  the  welfare  of  her  children.  A  continuance 
of  cohabitation  was  presumable,  however,  until  judicial  rec- 
ognition had  been  given  to  any  separation  that  might  have 
taken  place.  "It  is  a  matter  of  history,"  added  Mr.  Dickson, 
"that  the  Mormons  do  not  cohabit  together,  in  the  sense  used 
by  the  other  side,  without  a  form  of  marriage;  and  it  was  this 
form  of  marriage,  with  the  practice  under  it,  that  Congress 


400    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


legislated  against.  They  knew  that  sexual  sins  were  not 
upheld  in  Utah,  being  condemned  by  the  Mormons  and  de- 
plored by  the  Gentiles." 

The  Court's  Decision.— Judge  Zane,  reversing  his  former 
rulings,  now  maintained  that  unlawful  cohabitation  was  com- 
plete, without  sexual  intimacy,  if  a  man  held  out  to  the  world 
more  than  one  woman  as  his  wives.  The  rest  of  the  trial  was 
smooth  sailing  for  the  prosecution.  The  defendant  had  con- 
fessed enough  to  convict  himself  under  this  ruling  of  the  Court, 
and  the  jury,  charged  in  accordance  therewith,  were  not  long 
in  finding  a  verdict  of  guilty. 

The  Musser  Case. — The  day  following  that  upon  which 
the  Cannon  trial  closed  saw  the  beginning  of  proceedings  in 
the  case  of  the  United  States  versus  A.  Milton  Musser.  This 

defendant,  who  was  an  assist- 
ant to  the  Church  Historian, 
had  been  indicted  for  unlawful 
cohabitation.  To  each  of  his 
three  wives  he  had  deeded  a 
separate  home,  and  had  slept 
and  taken  meals  in  the  house 
occupied  by  one  of  them.  Noth- 
ing more  was  established,  be- 
yond the  fact  that  he  had  lived 
with  the  three  women  "in  the 
habit  and  repute  of  marriage." 
He  was  promptly  convicted. 

Arraigned  and   Sentenced. 

— Elders  Cannon  and  Musser 
were  both  arraigned  for  sen- 
tence on  the  9th  of  May.  Judge 
Zane  gave  to  each  the  usual 
alternative  of  "promising  to 
obey,"  stating  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  humiliate  any  one,  or 
to  have  it  understood  that  he 
was  trying  to  extort  a  promise. 
"But,"  he  added,  addressing 

Mr.  Cannon,  "I  would  love  to  know  that  you  could  conform 
to  the  law."  The  defendant  replied  that  when  he  became  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  he  had  no  idea  that  a  law  would 
he  enacted  making  his  religion  a  crime.  He  had  done  his 
utmost  to  honor  his  God,  his  family,  and  his  country,  and  was 
not  conscious  of  having  committed  any  wrong.  He  could  not 
say  what  he  would  do  in  the  future,  and  was  ready  to  receive 
the  sentence  of  the  Court.  The  Judge  imposed  the  maximum 


A.   MILTON   MUSSER. 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  401 

penalty  for  unlawful  cohabitation — a  fine  of  three  hundred  dol- 
lars, with  six  months'  imprisonment. 

Mr.  Musser,  when  his  turn  came,  presented  a  written 
statement  which  was  read  to  the  Court  by  his  attorney,  asking 
the  Judge  to  define  what  course  he  should  pursue  after  his 
release  from  prison,  in  order  that  he  might  be  safe  from  further 
prosecution.  The  answer  was  that  he  must  live  with  but  one 
wife — any  one  of  the  three — and  treat  his  other  wives  merely 
as  friends.*  This  the  defendant  would  not  agree  to  do,  where- 
upon the  Judge  said :  "Inasmuch  as  you  do  not  propose  to 
submit,  you  will  probably  be  involved  in  trouble  again.  It 
would  be  better  for  you  and  everybody  else  if  that  venerable 
man  at  the  head  of  your  Church  would  just  stand  up  and  say, 
'I  will  obey  the  laws,  and  teach  others  to  do  the  same/  If  he 
would  do  that,  he  would  never  have  to  go  to  the  Penitentiary. 
You  go  there  because  you  will  not  submit  to  the,  laws  of  your 
country."  He  then  pronounced  a  similar  sentence  to  that 
imposed  upon  Mr.  Cannon. 

Judge  Powers  Dissents. — The  Cannon  and  Musser  cases 
were  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Utah  in  June.  From  a  ma- 
jority decision  by  Judges  Zane  and  Boreman,  affirming  the 
rulings  of  the  Chief  Justice,  Judge  Powers  dissented,  wholly 
as  to  the  Musser  case,  and  in  part  as  to  the  Cannon  case.  He 
held  that  Musser  had  been  convicted  on  the  weakest  kind  of 
evidence,  and  was  entitled  to  a  new  trial.  Powers  acquiesced, 
however,  in  Zane's  definition  of  the  term  "cohabit." 

Cohabitation  Defined. — The  Cannon  case  was  taken  on  a 
writ  of  error  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  the 
purpose  being  to  obtain  a  fixed  and  reasonable  construction 
of  the  loose  and  elastic  phrase  "unlawful  cohabitation."  Mr. 
Cannon's  attorney,  Franklin  S.  Richards,  contended  that  all 
precedents  went  to  show  that  the  term  "cohabit"  implied 
sexual  intercourse.  This  was  freely  admitted,  but  the  equally 
frank  assertion  followed  that  in  order  to  reach  a  peculiar  con- 
dition in  Utah,  another  view  must  be  taken,  and  another  defini- 
tion found.  The  decision  from  Washington  came  on  the  14th 
of  December.  It  sustained  the  action  of  the  Utah  courts,  de- 
claring the  offense  of  unlawful  cohabitation  complete,  without 
sexual  intercourse,  when  a  man  flaunted  in  the  face  of  the 
world  "the  ostentation  and  opportunities  of  a  polygamous 
household."  It  was  a  majority  decree,  Justices  Miller  and 
Field  dissenting.  The  former  expressed  the  opinion  that  to 
hold  men  guilty  under  such  circumstances  was  "a  strained 
construction  of  a  highly  penal  statute." 

*In  a  subsequent  case  Judge  Zane  ruled  that  the  first  wife  was  to 
be  given  the  preference. 

25 


402     WHITNEY'S  1'Ol'ULAK  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Women  Defendants. — Many  arrests  had  been  made  by 
this  time,  and  numerous,  prosecutions  were  pending.  For  re- 
fusing to  answer  questions  that  would  criminate  the  men  to 
whom  they  were  married,  three  plural  wives,  Lucy  Devereau 
Newsom,  Elizabeth  Starkey  White,  and  Eliza  Shaffer  Snell, 
all  of  Salt  Lake  City,  were  sent  to  prison,  and  kept  there, 
two  of  them,  until  their  husbands  requested  them  to  give 
the  desired  information.  At  Ogden  Mrs.  James  A.  Nelson 
was  prosecuted  for  assaulting  a  deputy  marshal,  who,  with 
another  deputy  had  tried  to  enter  her  home  without  a  search 
warrant.  She  pushed  them  from  the  door  and  drove  them 
out  of  the  yard,  belaboring  one  of  the  officers  with  a  picket 
torn  from  her  fence.  Returning  with  the  required  papers,  the 
deputies  were  politely  received  by  Mrs.  Nelson  and  shown 
through  her  domicile. 

Bishop  Brown's  Defense. — In  the  District  Court  at 
Ogden,  on  the  last  day  of  June,  1885,  occurred  the  trial  of 

Francis  A.  Brown,  Ex-Bishop, 
former  City  Councilor,  and  one 
of  Utah's  early  educators. 
Sworn  as  a  witness  at  his  own 
request,  the  defendant  ad- 
dressed the  Judge  and  jury, 
stating  that  he  was  descended 
from  the  old  Puritan  stock  of 
New  England,  his  forefathers 
having  fought  for  freedom  in 
the  War  of  Independence.  He 
had  learned  in  childhood  to  love 
his  country  and  render  strict 
obedience  to  the  laws.  For  over 
forty  years  he  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  and 
had  entered  into  the  practice  of 
plural  marriage  from  a  religious 
conviction.  "I  now  ask  your 
Honor  what  I  am  to  do,"  said 
Bishop  Brown  to  Judge  Pow- 
ers. "Shall  I  break  the  most 
sacred  obligations  that  man  can 
enter  into?  Shall  I  abandon  my  wives  and  children  and  cast 
them  off  upon  the  charities  of  a  cold  world?  I  know  not  of 
what  metal  your  Honor  is  composed,  but  for  myself,  before  I 
will  prove  recreant  to  my  wives  and  children  and  betray*  my 
trust,  I  will  suffer  my  head  to  be  severed  from  my  body. 
*  *  *  I  stand  here  innocent  of  any  crime.  I  have  a  con- 


FRANCIS   A.   BROWN. 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  403 

science  void  of  offense.  *  *  *  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
that  while  water  runs,  or  grass  grows,  or  a  drop  of  blood  flows 
through  my  veins,  I  shall  obey  the  supreme  laws  of  my  God  in 
preference  to  the  changeable  and  imperfect  laws  of  man." 

This  address,  delivered  in  the  midst  of  a  deep  silence,  much 
impressed  the  Court  and  spectators.  The  Salt  Lake  Tribune, 
commenting  upon  the  incident  said :  "However  much  one 
may  deplore  such  wrong-headedness,  the  admission  must  be 
made  that  here  is  a  man,  one  who  does  not  quibble  and  lie,  and 
who  scorns  to  show  the  white  feather."  The  praise  was  partly 
intended  as  a  criticism  of  other  defendants  who  had  en- 
deavored in  various  ways  to  escape  punishment. 

Bishop  Brown  was  convicted  on  his  own  testimony,  no 
other  witnesses  being  examined.  The  case  was  submitted 
without  argument,  and  a  verdict  of  guilty  came  as  a  matter 
of  course.  The  defendant  received  the  full  penalty  of  the  law. 
On  the  same  day — July  llth — another  Ogden  man,  Moroni 
Brown,  was  also  fined  and  imprisoned  for  a  similar  cause.  In 
behalf  of  his  friend  and  himself,  the  Bishop  said  to  the  Judge : 
''If  your  Honor  will  make  out  our  commitments  and  pay  our 
fare,  we  will  find  our  way  to  the  Penitentiary  without  the  com- 
pany of  any  of  the  marshals."  The  Judge  replied  that  he  had 
no  power  to  grant  such  a  request. 

Bishop  Sharp's  Action. — A  number  of  defendants  made 
the  required  "promise  to  obey",  among  them,  Bishop  John 
Sharp,  of  the  Twentieth  Ward,  Salt  Lake  City.  A  man  of 
sterling  worth,  respected  and  esteemed  by  all  classes,  he  had 
been  for  many  years  one  of  Utah's  leading  financiers,  and  was 
a  director  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  Charged  with  un- 
lawful cohabitation,  his  case  was  pending  in  the  District  Court, 
when,  on  the  18th  of  September,  1885,  he  went  before 
Chief  Justice  Zane,  pleaded  guilty,  and  presented  a  written 
statement  which  was  read  to  the  Court  by  his  attorney  and 
son-in-law,  Mr.  P.  L.  Williams.  The  defendant  represented 
that  he  and  his  wives  had  entered  into  plural  marriage  at  a 
time  when  no  law  existed  against  such  relations,  and  in  em- 
bracing this  doctrine  of  their  religion,  they  had  not  designedly 
placed  themselves  in  conflict  with  the  laws  of  the  land.  The 
Edmunds  Act,  though  harsh,  did  not,  as  he  understood  it,  com- 
pel him  to  disown  his  wives  and  children.  He  had  arranged 
his  family  affairs  so  as  to  conform  to  the  law,  and  was  now 
living  in  harmony  with  its  provisions.  Asked  as  to  whether  he 
intended  to  do  so  in  the  future,  he  answered  in  the  affirmative. 

Judge  Zane  commended  the  stand  taken  by  Bishop  Sharp, 
and  expressed  the  belief  that  his  example  would  have  a-good 
effect.  He  then  said :  "I  am  disposed  to  exercise  the  discre- 
tion which  the  law  gives  me,  so  as  not  to  impose  any  im- 


404    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


prisonment.  I  will  simply  impose  a  fine  of  three  hundred  dol- 
lars and  costs."  The  fine  was  paid,  and  the  defendant  went 
forth  a  free  man.* 

Bishop  Sharp's  action  was  both  praised  and  blamed.  How 
the  Church  leaders  viewed  it,  was  evidenced  by  an  early  re- 
quest for  the  Bishop's  resignation — a  request  presented  by  the 
Salt  Lake  Stake  Presidency.  Nevertheless,  the  Ex-Bishop 
continued  to  be  held  in  high  regard,  and  at  his  funeral,  a  few 
years  later,  his  old  time  associates  were  among  the  sincerest 
mourners. 

Bishop  Clawson's  Attitude. — Bishop  Hiram  B.  Clawson, 
of  the  Twelfth  Ward,  having  been  convicted  of  unlawful  co- 
habitation, stood  before  Judge 
Zane  for  sentence.  Given  the 
usual  alternative,  he  expressed 
a  determination  to  remain  true 
to  the  covenants  he  had  made 
with  the  mothers  of  his  chil- 
dren. The  Court  was  severe 
with  this  defendant,  imposing 
upon  him,  not  only  the  heaviest 
penalty  allowable,  but  admin- 
istering along  with  it  a  caustic 
verbal  chastisement.  The  Bish- 
op had  pleaded  that  his  first 
polygamous  relations  were 
entered  into  before  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  against  plural 
marriage.  The  Judge  answered 
that  there  never  was  a  time 
when  polygamy  was  lawful  in 
the  United  States,  nor  did  he 
believe  that  it  was  recognized 
by  the  laws  of  Mexico,  of  which 
Utah  was  once  a  part.f  When 
those  relations  were  formed, 
therefore,  they  were  void ;  the  second  wife,  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  was  nothing  more  than  a  concubine,  and  the  children  born 
of  such  relations  were  bastards.  The  Judge  also  intimated 
that  the  defendant  was  guilty  of  cowardice  for  refusing  to 

*The  first  to  take  this  course  was  Orson  P.  Arnold,  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  whose  case  has  been  mentioned  briefly  (page  399).  Subse- 
quently, Mr.  Arnold  reconsidered  his  action,  revoked  his  promise,  and 
went  to  prison. 

fChief  Justice  Eckels  expressed  a  similar  view  in  1857-1858,  sev- 
eral years  before  the  enactment  of  the  Anti-Bigamy  Law.  See  page 
164,  also  Note. 


BISHOP   CLAWSON. 


UNDER  THE  HARROW. 


405 


promise  obedience,  his  refusal  being  partly  based  upon  the 
ground  that  he  would  suffer  social  ostracism  if  he  cast  off  his 
wives  and  children. 

The  "Mormon"  press  and  people  hotly  resented  the  com- 
ments of  the  Court  in  this  case,  particularly  the  epithets  ap- 
plied to  plural  wives  and  their  children.  They  also  criticized 
the  Judge  for  imputing  cowardice  to  a  man  who  preferred 
"prison  with  honor"  to  "liberty  with  dishonor" ;  that  being  the 
language  in  which  the  defendant  had  signified  his  choice. 
It  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  state  that  Judge  Zane  and  Bishop 
Clawson  afterwards  became  better  acquainted  and  were  quite 
friendly. 

John  Nicholson's  Stand. — John  Nicholson,  of  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  Deseret  News,  when  arraigned  on  a  similar  charge, 
waived  his  right  to  plead,  and 
was  sworn  as  a  witness  for  the 
prosecution.  He  took  this  step 
voluntarily,  to  save  his  family 
from  being  brought  into  court 
to  testify.  Nicholson  stated 
that  the  Edmunds  Act  made  his 
conduct  criminal — malum  pro- 
hibitum,  though  it  was  not 
malum  in  se,  or  wrong  in  itself. 
He  had  a  large  family,  who 
were  attached  to  him,  as  he  to 
them,  by  the  tenderest  ties,  and 
a  requirement  to  discard  a  por- 
tion of  them  placed  him  in  a 
very  painful  position.  His 
plural  wife,  who  would  have 
been  the  principal  witness  had 
he  not  testified  against  himself, 
had  told  him  that  she  would 
decline  to  say  anything  that 
would  send  him  to  prison.  After 
such  an  exhibition  of  devotion 
on  her  part,  he  could  not  think 
of  cutting  her  adrift ;  the  bare  idea  was  revolting  to  him.  In 
conclusion  the  defendant  said:  "My  purpose  is  fixed,  and  I 
hope  unalterable.  I  shall  stand  by  my  allegiance  to  God,  fidel- 
ity to  my  family,  and  what  I  conceive  to  be  my  duty  to  the 
Constitution,  which  guarantees  the  fullest  religious  liberty 
to  the  citizen." 

Judge  Zane  gave  Mr.  Nicholson  credit  for  candor  and  sin- 
cerity, but  sentenced  him  to  the  full  limit  of  the  law,  adding 


JOHN   NICHOLSON. 


406    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


the  stern  prophecy :    "This  law  will  go  on  and  grind  you  and 
your  institutions  to  powder." 

A  Lawyer  Prosecuted. — The  case  of  Aurelius  Miner  had 
some  peculiar  features.  In  the  first  place,  being  an  attorney,, 
the  oldest  living  -practitioner  in  the  Utah  courts,  he  conducted 
his  own  defense,  assisted  by  Mr.  Moses  Kirkpatrick.  Judge 

, Zane  put  this  question  to  the 

defendant :  "Are  you  prepared 
to  say  that  you  will  obey  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  in 
future  ?' 

Mr.  Miner  replied  that 
some  laws  of  Congress,  after 
being  declared  constitutional  by 
the  Court  of  Last  Resort,  had 
been  pronounced  unconstitu- 
tional by  the  same  tribunal,  and 
this  might  be  so  with  the  Ed- 
munds Law,  which  reached  into 
the  domain  of  morals,  where 
Congress  had  no  right  to  go. 

Judge  Zane.— "Well,  Mr. 
Miner,  it  is  not  worth  while  for 
you  to  question  whether  this 
law  is  right  or  wrong.  The  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United 
States  has  declared  it  constitu- 
tional, and  it  is  not  for  you  to 
dispute  it.  The  American  peo- 
ple, through  their  servants  in 
Congress,  determine  what  is 

right  and  wrong-  conduct,  and  after  the  Supreme  Court  pro- 
nounces their  act  valid,  that  is  the  end  of  controversy." 

Mr.  Miner. — "That  is  the  end  of  legal  controversy,  I  ad- 
mit ;  but  not  the  end  of  controversy  in  the  forum  of  conscience 
or  the  forum  of  debate." 

The  defendant  received  the  full  penalty  for  unlawful  co- 
habitation. Then  followed  proceedings  for  his  disbarment, 
based  upon  his  conviction  of  a  misdemeanor  and  his  attitude 
toward  the  laws.  His  conviction,  it  was  claimed,  involved 
moral  turpitude.  Thomas  Marshall,  in  behalf  of  the  Utah  Bar 
Association,  presented  the  charges,  and  he,  with  Jud^e  Hoge, 
conducted  the  prosecution.  During  the  proceedings  Mr.  Kirk- 
patrick argued  that  it  was  not  customary  to  disbar  for  sexual 
irregularities,  and  inquired  why  cohabitation  should  be  a  cause 
f(-r  disbarment,  when  adultery  was  not.  The  answer  was  that 
cohabitation  was  "worse  than  adultery."  The  charges  were 


JUDGE    MINER. 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  407 

sustained,  and  Judge  Miner  was  disqualified  for  practice  in  the 
Utah  courts.  Subsequently,  however,  he  regained  his  legal 
standing. 

Typical  Cases. — The  foregoing  are  a  few  cases  selected 
from  many,  as  typical  of  the  prosecutions  of  that  period.  To 
dwell  upon  all, -or  even  give  them  passing  mention,  would  be 
impracticable  in  a  condensed  history,  and  without  profit  to  the 
general  reader.  Before  the  crusade  ended,  nearly  a  thousand 
persons  had  suffered  imprisonment  under  the  operations  of  the 
anti-polygamy  laws. 

•  A  Disappointing  Statute. — And  yet  the  Edmunds  Law 
proved  a  disappointment.  The  attitude  of  most  of  the  defend- 
ants impleaded  thereunder  convinced  those  who  were  working 
for  the  suppression  of  plural  marriage  that  they  had  under- 
taken a  much  harder  task  than  they  anticipated.  Neither  the 
makers  nor  the  ministers  of  the  law  had  given  the  men  and 
women  who  practiced  this  form  of  marriage  sufficient  credit 
for  sincerity.  Imputing  to  them  unworthy  motives,  thev  sup- 
posed even  light  penalties  would  induce  them  to  recede  from 
their  position  and  sever  their  peculiar  relations.  They  found 
this  to  be  an  error.  The  Anti-Bigamy  Law  had  always  been  a 
dead  letter,  inoperative,  ineffectual ;  and  now  the  Edmunds 
Act,  its  original  severity  enhanced  by  the  extreme  interpreta- 
tions put  upon  it,  had  failed  to  accomplish  its  purpose.  More 
legislation  must  be  had,  or  existing  laws  must  be  made  more 
effective,  if  success  was  to  crown  the  efforts  put  forth  for  the 
extirpation  of  polygamy.  So  reasoned  the  prosecutors  and  the 
judges. 

Heavier  Penalties  Invoked. — The  result  was  the  adoption 
by  them  of  a  doctrine  and  practice  whereby  the  law's  heavy 
hand  was  made  much  heavier.  This  time,  however,  they  went 
too  far,  and  were  not  sustained  by  the  Court  of  Last  Resort, 
which  declared  their  doctrine  and  practice  illegal. 

The  opinion  that  weightier  penalties  were  necessary  in 
this  class  of  prosecutions  had  been  entertained  for  some  time 
prior  to  the  new  departure.  Judge  Zane,  in  one  of  the  early 
cases  that  came  before  him — that  of  Parley  P.  Pratt,  Jr., — 
virtually  expressed  regret  that  the  Edmunds  Law  was  not 
more  severe,  and  as  if  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  pro- 
nounced upon  the  defendant  a  heavier  punishment  than  the 
law  allowed;  adding  to  the  usual  sentence  of  imprisonment 
the  words  "at  hard  labor".  This  error  was  rectified,  however, 
as  soon  as  the  Court's  attention  was  called  to  it.  But  the  feel- 
ing back  of  the  original  act  remained,  not  only  with  the  Chief 
justice,  but  with  all  who  were  "in  sympathy  with  the  .prose- 
nn." 

Further  Legislation    Recommended. — Governor    Murray 


408    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

and  the  Utah  Commission,  in  their  autumn  reports  for  1885, 
urged  the  necessity  of  more  stringent  legislation  against  poly- 
gamy and  "Mormon"  interests  in  general.  A  Legislative  Com- 
mission, to  act  in  conjunction  with  the  Governor  in  filling  by 
appointment  all  offices  then  elective  by  the  people,  was  recom- 
mended. Some  of  the  "Anti-Mormons"  favored  a  disfranchise- 
ment  statute,  similar  to  those  enacted  in  Idaho  and  Arizona. 
.But  Congress  was  not  ready  to  grant  these  requests,  though  it 
resumed,  during  the  following  winter,  consideration  of  a  bill 
out  of  which  grew  an  act  to  dissolve'  the  "Mormon"  Church 
as  a  body  corporate,  and  escheat  its  property  to  the  Federal 
Government. 

"Segregation". — Meantime  the  Utah  courts  adopted  an 
expedient  that  answered  the  purpose  of  an  additional  Act  of 
Congress,  and  threatened  at  one  time  to  be  used  with  terrible 
effect.  The  theory  was  advanced  that  while  the  maximum 
legal  penalty  for  unlawful  cohabitation  was  a  fine  of  three 
hundred  dollars  and  imprisonment  for  six  months,  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  the  period  of  the  offense — which  might 
be  three  years  under  the  statute  of  limitations — from  being  di- 
vided into  lesser  periods,  each  one  to  be  covered  by  a  separate 
indictment.  Hence  "Segregation",  by  which  name  the  new 
doctrine  became  known.  It  was  introduced  into  court  on  the 
16th  of  September,  when  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  Third  Judicial 
District  came  before  Chief  Justice  Zane  and  requested  in- 
structions upon  a  matter  previously  presented  to  them  by  the 
United  States  Attorney.  It  had  been  proposed  to  "segre- 
gate" a  case  of  unlawful  cohabitation  which  the  Grand  Jury 
was  then  considering.  Having  heard  the  matter,  the  Judge 
instructed  the  jurors  that  an  indictment  might  be  found  for 
any  portion  of  time  within  the  three  years,  1883,  1884,  and 
1885,  during  which  the  offense  was  shown  to  have  been  com- 
mitted, whether  that  portion  of  time  was  a  year,  a  month,  or 
a  week.  The  U.  S.  Attorney,  however,  had  only  suggested 
the  finding  of  an  indictment  for  each  of  the  three  years  men- 
tioned. 

Possibilities  of  the  Procedure. — According  to  the  theory 
advanced,  a  man  who  acknowledged  more  than  one  woman 
as  his  wives — that  being  the  latest  definition  of  unlawful  co- 
habitation— and  who  continued  to  acknowledge  them  for  three 
years,  might  be  indicted  three  times,  thirty-six  times,  or  one 
hundred  and  fifty-six  times,  according  to  the  will  of  the  Grand 
Jury.  And  this  was  pronounced  "good  law"  by  some  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  Utah  Bar.  But  more  than  one  layman 
took  issue  with  the  attorneys  upon  that  point. 

The  divisional  process  suggested  in  the  Third  District 
Court  left  little  to  be  added  in  the  way  of  innovation.  The 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  409 

Judge  of  the  First  District,  however,  went  a  step  further. 
While  instructing  his  Grand  Jury  he  remarked  that  an  indict- 
ment might  be  found  against  a  man  guilty  of  unlawful  cohabi- 
tation for  every  day  or  other  distinct  interval  of  time  during 
which  he  offended.  "Each  day,"  said  Judge  Powers,  "that  a 
man  cohabits  with  more  than  one  woman,  is  a  distinct  viola- 
tion of  the  law,  and  he  is  liable  to  punishment  for  each  separ- 
ate offense." 

"According  to  this  proposition,"  said  the  Deseret  News, 
"the  obnoxious  'Mormon'  could  be  sentenced  to  an  aggre- 
gated term  of  five  hundred  and  forty-seven  years  and  six 
months,  and  compelled  to  pay  a  fine  of  $328,400.  If  he  hap- 
pened to  be  impecunious,  he  could  be  made  to  remain  in  prison 
for  ninety-one  years  and  three  months  longer,  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  poor  convict  act."  In  the  same  ironical  vein  it  was 
suggested  that  the  prisoner  might  be  fortunate  enough  to  shuf- 
fle off  his  mortal  coil  before  the  expiration  of  the  term,  and 
that  some  scheme  ought  to  be  devised  by  which  such  an  escape 
from  the  rigors  of  the  law  could  be  met.  "Why  not  extend  its 
penalties  to  the  other  life?"  asked  the  author  of  the  satirical 
article.  He  went  on  to  suggest  that  the  remaining  occupant 
of  the  Bench  (Judge  Boreman)  might  stand  circus  fashion 
upon  the  shoulders  of  the  other  two  magistrates,  and  instruct 
his  Grand  Jury  to  segregate  a 
given  time  into  hours,  and  in- 
dict accordingly.  Referring  to 
the  absent  Church  leaders  and 
those  who  found  fault  with 
them  for  going  into  retirement 
instead  of  "facing  the  music", 
the  same  writer  said:  "Devel- 
opments are  constantly  occur- 
ring that  ought  to  show  the 
dullest  mind  that  the  amount  of 
consideration  or  justice  they 
would  receive  at  the  hands  of 
the  courts  of  Utah,  could  be  in- 
jected into  a  person's  eye  with- 
out causing  him  to  wink." 

The  News  Editors.— The 
chief  editor  of  the  News  at  that 
time  was  the  veteran  journalist, 
Charles  W.  Penrose,  whose 
keen  and  ready  pen  had  lon^ 
been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  those 
who  were  conducting  the  cru- 
sade. He  was  one  of  the  men  CHARLES  w.  PENROSE 


410    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


much  sought  after  by  the  raiding  deputies.  In  January,  1885, 
he  had  been  sent  on  a  brief  mission  to  the  Eastern  States,  and 
during  his  absence  his  legal  wife  and  family,  down  to  a  boy 
of  eight  years,  were  summoned  before  the  Grand  Jury.  His 
wife  refused  to  testify,  but  the  desired  evidence  was  drawn 
forth  from  the  children.  While  in  the  States  the  husband 
and  father  was  appointed  to  go  abroad,  and,  during  the  next 
two  years,  labored  in  the  European  Mission,  which  Was  then 
in  charge  of  President  Daniel  H.  Wells.  Mr.  Penrose  did 
editorial  work  upon  the  "Millennial  Star",  the  Church  organ  at 
Liverpool,  and  corresponded  with  the  Deseret  News  over  the 
nom  de  plume  of  "Exile". 

In  the  absence  of  the  Chief  Editor,  his  associate,  John 
Nicholson,  conducted  the  paper,  serving  in  that  capacity  before 
and  after  his  imprisonment,  which  began  October  13,  1885. 
It  was  Nicholson's  caustic  pen  that  satirized,  in  the  manner 
set  forth,  the  doctrine  of  segregation. 

Unconverted  Grand  Jurors. — Three  members  of  Judge 
Zane's  Grand  Jury  were  not  converted  to  the  doctrine.  They 
were  Newel  W.  Clayton,  Jacob  Moritz,  and  J.  W.  Davis. 
These  gentlemen  took  the  ground  that  the  finding  of  more 
than  one  indictment  for  the  same  offense  was  an  infringement 
of  the  Constitution,  in  that  it  opened  the  way  for  the  imposi- 
tion of  excessive  fines  and  unusual  penalties.  They  argued 

that  since  the  law  of  1862  fixed 
the  maximum  penalty  for  poly- 
gamy at  a  fine  of  five  hundred 
dollars  and  imprisonment  for 
five  years,  while  the  Edmunds 
Law  made  the  utmost  punish- 
ment for  unlawful  cohabitation 
a  fine  of  only  three,  hundred  dol- 
lars and  imprisonment  for  six 
months ;  therefore,  to  multiply 
indictments  against  men  in  the 
manner  proposed  was  to  render 
them  liable  to  heavier  punish- 
ment for  the  lesser  offense  than 
for  the  greater.  Consequently 
they  refused  to  segregate,  and 
were  sharply  reproved  by  the 
Judge  and  discharged  from  the 
Grand  Jury. 

The    Gowans    Case. — The 
first  case  to  be  affected  by  the 
HUGH  s.  GOWANS.  segregation  ruling  was  that  of 


UNDER  THE  HARROW.  411 

Hugh  S.  Gowans,  President  of  Tooele  Stake,  who  was  indicted 
by  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  Third  District  three  times  for  the 
same  offense,  and  subsequently  arraigned  in  court  to  plead  to 
the  triple  indictment.  The  Gowans  case,  however,  was  not 
the  first  of  its  kind  to  come  to  trial ;  and  when  the  trial  took 
place  it  was  only  upon  one  of  the  indictments,  the  others  being 
held  over  for  future  use.  The  defendant  was  convicted  and 
sent  to  prison. 

As  to  the  Motive. — It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  inform  the 
reader  that  matters  were  never  pushed  to  the  full  lengths  sug- 
gested by  the  foregoing  utterances  from  the  Utah  Bench,  it 
would  require  the  extreme  of  credulity  to  believe  that  such  a 
course  was  ever  contemplated.  A  desire  to  multiply  pains  and 
penalties,  with  a  view  to  increasing  human  suffering,  was  not 
the  mainspring  of  this  extraordinary  procedure.  Charity 
would  demand  such  a  concession  even  if  reason  did  not.  The 
Federal  Courts  and  their  officers  stood  upon  higher  ground. 
They  were  determined  to  end  the  crusade,  and  to  conquer 
those  whom  they  now  looked  upon  as  sincere  fanatics  rather 
than  as  obstinate  law-breakers.  Hamlet's  attitude  toward  the 
Queen  Mother — "I  must  be  cruel  in  order  to  be  kind" — or 
something  like  it,  was  the  position  of  the  public  prosecutor, 
not  a  hard-hearted  man  by  nature,  and  as  a  rule  courteous, 
mild-mannered,  and  affable.  "Segregation"  was  intended  to 
strike  terror  to  the  "Mormon"  heart,  and  compel  an  earlier 
surrender  on  the  part  of  the  Church  to  what  some  of  its 
members  were  beginning  to  feel  was  the  inevitable. 


XXIX. 
SENSATIONAL  EPISODES. 

1885-1886. 

An  Appeal  to  the  Nation. — Early  in  1885  the  leading  men 
of  the  "Mormon"  community  had  taken  steps  to  acquaint  the 
country  with  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Utah,  and  obtain,  if 
possible,  some  relief  from  the  terrible  strain  the  Territory  was 
under,  owing  to  the  operations  of  "The  Crusade".  It  was 
hoped  that  the  Nation,  which  had  just  returned  the  Democracy 
to  power — for  the  first  time  in  twenty-eight  years — would  not 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  an  appeal  from  American  citizens  who  felt 
themselves  trampled  upon  and  robbed  of  their  rights.  The 
majority  in  Utah  were  Democrats  by  tradition,  and  it  was 
believed  that  the  national  party  leaders  would  not,  when  fully 
informed,  sanction  the  course  pursued. by  radical  Republican 
office-holders  in  this  then  unhappy  commonwealth. 

Epistle  from  the  First  Presidency. — The  idea  of  such  an 
appeal  came  from  the  First  Presidency,  in  an  epistle  read  at 
the  Annual  Conference,  which  convened  that  year  at  Logan, 
on  the  5th  of  April.  It  was  the  first  public  communication 
from  the  heads  of  the  Church  after  they  went  into  retirement, 
and  was  signed  by  John  Taylor  and  George  Q.  Cannon;  their 
associate,  Joseph  F.  Smith,  being  then  in  a  foreign  land.*  In- 
cidentally the  fact  was  mentioned  by  the  Presidency  that  the 
men  who  practiced  plural  marriage  constituted  only  a  very 
small  percentage  of  the  membership  of  the  Church,  and  it  was 
pointedly  asked  why  a  whole  community  should  be  terrorized 
and  injured  for  the  alleged  shortcomings  of  a  few. 

The  Conference,  after  hearing1  the  epistle,  appointed  a 
committee  to  draft  an  address  to  the  Nation.  That  commit- 
tee, twenty-two  in  number,  were  authorized  not  only  to  pre- 
pare the  address,  but  to  call  mass  meetings  in  different  parts  of 
the  Territory  where  it  might  be  read  to  and  adopted  by  the 
citizens.  The  mass  meetings  were  held  on  the  2nd  of  May,  the 
principal  one  in  the  Tabernacle  at  Salt  Lake  City,  where  ten 
thousand  people  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  "Declaration  of 
Grievances  and  Protest"  prepared  by  the  Conference  Commit- 
tee, and  to  speeches  in  support  of  what  it  contained. 

*From  October,  1884,  to  September,  1891,  President  Smith  was 
not  seen  publicly  in  Utah.  He  spent  a  considerable  portion  of  that 
period  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  was  aftervyards  in  the  Eastern 
States,  exerting  an  influence  for  the  welfare  of  his  people. 


SKNSATIONAL  EPISODES.  413 

Declaration  and  Protest. — The  document  bearing  that 
title  was  addressed  "To  the  President  and  People  of  the  United 
States."  It  called  attention  to  the  situation  in  Utah,  Idaho, 
and  Arizona,  "a  condition  of  affairs  imperiling  the  liberties  of 
every  freeman";  and  made  reference  to  plural  marriage  as  "a 
vital  principle  of  the  'Mormon'  religion" — a  fact  conceded  by 
the  Utah  Commission  in  its  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior, November,  1884.  The  further  fact  was  presented  that 
plural  marriage  was  not  introduced  in  violation  of  law,  but 
the  law  was  enacted  against  this  principle  of  religion. 

The  Declaration  affirmed  that  the  authorities  at  Wash- 
ington had  disregarded  the  rights  of  the  citizens  of  Utah  in  the 
matter  of  local  self-government,  refusing  them  Statehood, 
compelling  them  to  accept  Territorial  or  colonial  conditions, 
discriminating  against,  them  in  various  ways,  and  sending 
strangers  to  them  as  governors,  judges,  prosecuting  attorneys 
and  marshals,  men  who  with  honorable  exceptions  had  no 
interest  in  the  common  welfare,  and  had  haughtily  ignored  the 
rights  and  trampled  upon  the  liberties  of  the  people. 

The  Commissioners  appointed  under  the  Edmunds  Law 
were  criticized  for  usurping  "extraordinary,  illegal  and  arbi- 
trary powers".  While  their  sole  duty  under  the  law  was  to 
appointed  registration  and  election  officers  and  to  canvas  the 
returns  and  issue  certificates  of  election  to  members  of  the 
Legislative  Assembly,  they  had  illegally  assumed  to  exercise 
important  legislative  and  judicial  functions.  In  the  appoint- 
ment of  registration  officers,  they  had  selected  for  such  posi- 
tions, whenever  possible,  only  such  persons  as  belonged  to  the 
"Anti-Mormon"  faction,  denying  to  the  majority  party,  whose 
members  comprised  four-fifths  of  the  population  of  the  Terri- 
tory, representation  among  the  registrars.  In  the  appointment 
of  judges  of  election  they  had  either  refused  the  majority  party 
any  representative  at  all,  or  had  only  given  it  one  of  the  three 
judges  in  each  precinct. 

Complaint  was  made  against  the  injustice  of  United  States 
officials  sent  to  execute  the  laws.  They  had  generally  allied 
themselves  with  sectarian  priests  and  political  adventurers ; 
lending  their  executive  or  judicial  influence  to  foment  local  ex- 
citement, and  degrade  the  citizens  of  Utah  in  the  estimation  of 
people  abroad.  The  Governors  of  the  Territory,  possessing 
absolute  veto  power,  had  usually  been  despotic  in  their  min- 
isterial acts. 

The  present  Governor  especially  had  "acted  the  part  of  a 
petty  tyrant."  In  his  official  messages  and  reports,  in  his  con- 
tributions to  the  press,  and  in  his  public  addresses,  he  had  con- 
stantly misrepresented  the  state  of  affairs  in  Utah,  and  seized 
upon  every  opportunity  to  arouse  popular  prejudice  and  hatred 


414     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

against  her  people.  The  Edmunds  Act  contemplated  the  dis- 
continuance of  the  Utah  Commission  as  soon  as  the  Legislat- 
ure should  provide  for  filling  the  registration  and  election  of- 
fices under  local  laws;  yet  when  a  bill  was  submitted  to  the 
Governor  providing  for  this  change,  in  full  conformity  with 
the  Edmunds  Law  and  other  acts  of  Congress,  he  vetoed  the 
measure  and  continued  the  Commissioners  in  office.  The  pre- 
ceding Legislature  had  passed  a  bill,  drawn  up  in  accordance 
with  the  Governor's  suggestions,  apportioning  the  representa- 
tion of  the  Territory,  but  when  it  was  presented  to  him  for 
his  signature,  he  treated  it  with  contemptous  silence. 

The  Edmunds  Law,  which  not  only  provided  for  the 
punishment  of  polygamy,  but  also  cohabitation  with  more  than 
one  woman,  whether  in  the  marriage  relation  or  outside  of  it, 
was  made  to  operate  upon  one  class  of  people  only — the  "Mor- 
mons." The  paramour  of  mistresses  and  harlots,  secure  from 
prosecution,  walked  the  streets  in  open  day.  No  United  States 
official  put  a  "spotter"  on  his  trail,  or  made  an  effort  to  drag 
his  deeds  of  shame  and  guilt  before  a  judge  and  jury  for  in- 
vestigation and  punishment.  But  in  Utah,  Idaho  and  Arizona, 
a  concerted  .attack  was  made  upon  the  "Mormon"  people. 

After  a  further  citation  of  acts  already  summarized  in 
the  previous  chapter,  the  document  went  on  to  say:  "In 
consequence  of  this  crusade,  which  bears  all  the  aspects 
of  a  religious  persecution,  business  relations  are  disturbed, 
values  of  every  kind  unsettled,  neighborhoods  agitated 
and  alarmed,  and  property  of  the  people  generally  jeopardized. 
It  not  only  affects  alleged  violaters  of  the  law,  but  those  who 
are  innocent  of  transgressing  it.  It  works  a  hardship  upon  the 
entire  community,  upon  the  innocent  as  well  as  the  guilty.  The 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  'Mormon'  people  are  monogam- 
ists, and  but  a  small  percentage  are  even  suspected  of  violat- 
ing the  law.  In  the  name  of  this  great  majority  we  pray  that 
this  unusual,  cruel,  and  partial  administration  of  the  law  shall 
cease.  If  the  'conscience  of  the  people'  demands  that  the  law 
be  enforced,  let  it  be  enforced  in  all  the  Territories  and  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  as  well  as  in  Utah — upon  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles as  well  as  upon  the  'Mormons/  J 

So  far  the  Declaration.  Then  followed  the  Protest,  sum- 
ming up  the  points  set  forth,  and  ending  with  this  appeal : 
''We  respectfully  ask  for  the  appointment,  by  the  President, 
of  a  Commission  to  fairly  and  thoroughly  investigate  the  Utah 
situation ;  and  pending  its  report,  we  solemnly  protest  against 
the  continuance  of  this  merciless  crusade." 

The  Tabernacle  Mass  Meeting. — The  proceedings  at  the 
Tabernacle  evoked  a  tremendous  demonstration.  Nearly  every 
sentence  read  or  spoken  was  punctuated  with  applause.  More 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES.  415 

than  once  the  voice  of  the  reader  was  drowned  in  the  tumult, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  pause  until  the  tempest  of  sound  had 
subsided.  The  reading  closed  amid  a  whirlwind  of  cheers  and 
hand-clappings  that  continued  for  several  minutes. 

One  regrettable  incident  connected  itself  with  the  meet- 
ing, and  it  was  entirely  outside  the  program.  United  States 
Attorney  Dickson,  his  assistant,  Mr.  Varian,  and  Commis- 
sioner McKay  were  present  in  the  Tabernacle,  and  were  hissed 
by  a  portion  of  the  audience  as  they  arose  to  depart  just  before 
the  close  of  the  proceedings.  The  unseemly  demonstration 
was  promptly  checked  by  the  chairman,  Honorable  John  T. 
Caine. 

President  Cleveland's  Promise. — The  Declaration  and  Pro- 
test, having  been  adopted,  was  carried  to  Washington  by  Dele- 
gate Caine  and  two  others  of  the  committee.  They  were  court- 
eously received  at  the  White  House,  where  President  Cleve- 
land, after  listening  attentively  to  their  statement  of  the  object 
of  the  visit,  and  receiving  from  their  hands  the  document  of 
which  they  were  the  bearers,  said :  "Well,  gentlemen,  so  far 
as  the  Edmunds  Law  is  concerned,  I  had  nothing  to  do  with 
that,  though  of  course  it  is  my  duty  to  see  it  enforced,  as  well 
as  all  other  laws.  You  are  entitled  to  fair  consideration,  how- 
ever, and  in  any  appointments  made  by  me  I  shall  endeavor  to 
give  you  men  of  a  character  who  will  see  that  the  law  is  im- 
partially administered."  His  face  broke  into  a  smile  as  he 
added :  'T  wish  you,  out  there,  could  be  like  the  rest  of  us." 

"All  we  ask,"  said  Delegate  Caine,  "is  that  the  law  shall 
be  fairly  and  impartially  administered." 

"You  are  entitled  to  that,"  replied  the  President,  "and 
so  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  shall  see  that  it  is  done." 

The  Half-Masting  Episode. — During  the  following  sum- 
mer another  attempt  was  made  to  call  the  Nation's  attention 
to  the  distressful  situation  in  this  Territory.  The  method  em- 
ployed was  effectual,  but  many  people,  "Mormons"  as  well  as 
"Gentiles",  deemed  it  improper  and  unwise.  While  the  motive 
was  not  unpatriotic,  the  act  was  construed  as  a  demonstra- 
tion of  ill  will  to  the  Government. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  Fourth  of  July  a  number  of 
the  flags  hoisted  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  honor  of  the  day,  were 
observed  to  be  flying  at  half-mast ;  among  them  the  flags  at 
the  City  Hall,  the  County  Court  House,  and  Zion's  Co-oper- 
ative Mercantile  Institution.  From  these  tokens,  significant  of 
public  mourning,  it  was  at  first  supposed  that  General  Grant 
was  dead;  his  spirit  at  that  time  being  about  to  take  flight. 
But  this  impression  was  soon  dispelled,  since  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  upon  other  buildings  and  at  Fort  Douglas  were  at  full 
mast,  and  no  bulletin  announced  the  death  of  the  Nation's 


416    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

hero.  Some  drew  the  inference  that  the  "Mormon"  President 
had  passed  away;  but  inquiry  revealed  the  fact  that  this  sup- 
position .was  also  unfounded.  Gradually  the  truth  dawned 
upon  the  public  mind.  The  starry  banner  had  been  hung  mid- 
way as  a  sign  of  sorrow,  but  not  for  any  individual.  It  meant 
that  certain  citizens  took  the  view  that  Liberty  was  in  chains 
so  far  as  Utah  was  concerned,  and  that  it  was  a  time  to  grieve 
rather  than  jubilate. 

Division  of  Sentiment. — As  intimated,  the  general  senti- 
ment was  much  divided,  even  among  the  "Mormons".  Many 
regarded  the  act  as  appropriate  and  timely,  while  others,  fore- 
seeing the  use  that  would  be  made  of  it,  were  almost  as  much 
offended  as  the  "Gentiles".  The  latter  were  also  mixed  in  their 
opinions ;  those  of  radical  tendencies  jumping  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  was  a  treasonable  demonstration,  and  the  con- 
servative element  suspending  judgment  until  an  investigation 
could  be  made. 

A  committee  headed  by  United  States  Marshal  Ireland 
and  Major  Edmund  Wilkes  proceeded  to  the  City  Hall  and  in- 
quired for  Mayor  James  Sharp.  The  Mayor  not  being  in  his 
office,  they  interviewed  City  Marshal  William  G.  Phillips,  who 
informed  them  that  he  had  caused  the  flag  to  be  half-masted  on 
the  liberty  pole  in  front  of  the  Hall.  Describing  how  most  of 
the  citizens  felt  over  the  imprisonment  or  exile  of  their  lead- 
ing men,  the  breaking  up  of  families,  and  the  general  terroriza- 
tion,  he  assigned  these  as  the  reasons  why  the  flag  had  been 
so  placed. 

Marshal  Phillips'  explanation  seemed  to  satisfy  the  com- 
mittee that  no  indignity  had  been  intended,  but  they  requested, 
in  the  interest  of  peace,  that  the  City  Hall  flag  be  lowered 
or  run  up  to  the  staff-head.  One  of  their  number,  Captain 
Evans,  a  former  U.  S.  deputy  marshal,  remarked  that  it  made 
him  as  angry  to  see  the  Stars  and  Stripes  half  raised  at  such 
a  time,  as  when  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  on.  Major  Wilkes, 
who  had  been  a  Confederate  officer,  could  not  of  course  echo 
that  particular  sentiment,  but  he  joined  in  the  Committee's 
request,  which  was  subsequently  honored  by  Mayor  Sharp. 
Similar  action  was  taken  at  the  County  Court  House,  and  later 
at  other  buildings. 

Early  in  the  day,  during  a  G.  A.  R.  celebration  at  Lind- 
say's Gardens,  a  pleasure  resort  in  the  northeastern  suburb, 
indignant  speeches  were  made  by  "Gentile"  and  "Mormon" 
orators,  and  resolutions  passed  protesting  against  the  alleged 
"insult  to  the  flag."  In  the  afternoon  a  crowd  marched  up 
Main  Street,  loudly  voicing  its  determination  to  raise  the  flag 
on  "The  Co-op"  (Z.  C.  M.  I.),  which  building,  closed  and 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES. 


417 


locked  for  the  day,  was  in  charge  of  the  watchman,  Hamilton 
G.  Park.  He  had  not  placed  the  flag,  but  was  resolved  to 
permit  no  trespass  upon  the  property.  He  warned  the  crowd 
that  they  would  break  into  the  store  at  their  peril,  and  held 
them  at  bay  until  the  arrival  of  two  Z.  C.  M.  I.  directors,  by 
whose  order  the  desired  change  was  made.  Governor  Murray 
applied  to  General  McCook  for  military  aid  to  compel  the  rais- 
ing of  all  the  flags,  public  and  private,  but  the  Fort  Douglas 
commander  declined  to  interfere. 

The  "Anti-Mormons"  made  effective  use  of  the  half-mast- 
ing episode.  The  Associated  Press  agent  telegraphed  abroad  his 
version  of  the  affair,  and  succeeded  in  stirring  up  quite  a  com- 
motion in  some  of  the  Eastern  cities.  "Let  us  hear  no  more 
of  Mormon  love  for  the  Stars  and  Stripes,"  said  the  Salt  Lake 
Tribune.  The  Deseret  News  denounced  "the  attempt  to  con- 
strue the  incident  into  an  insult  to  the  Government,"  as  "su- 
premely absurd,  as  well  as  heartless  and  atrocious."  Referring 
to  the  assassination  of  President  Garfield,  and  the  general  half- 
masting  at  the  time  of  that  tragedy,  the  Church  organ  said : 
"A  man  who  would  have  accused  the  country  of  insulting  the 
flag  because  it  was  then  placed  in  a  drooping  position,  would 
have  been  treated  as  an  idiot.  The  people  of  Utah  joined  in 
that  universal  grief.  They  are  now  sorrowful  over  the  deca- 
dence of  their  liberties."  The  City  Council,  after  a  thorough 
investigation,  published  an  offi- 
cial statement  to  the  effect  that 
nothing  disrespectful  to  the 
Nation  had  been  intended. 

Excitement  at  Ogden. — The 
excitement  at  the  capital  on  In- 
dependence Day  was  duplicated 
on  a  smaller  scale  at  Ogden, 
though  the  cause  was  not  the 
same.  At  a  joint  celebration, 
in  which  representative  "Mor- 
mons" and  "Gentiles"  took  part, 
after  an  oration  by  Judge  Pow- 
ers, Moses  Thatcher  was  in- 
vited to  speak.  Accepting  the 
invitation,  the  Apostle  por- 
trayed the  unhappy  situation  in 
Utah,  and  criticized  those  who 
had  brought  about  the  enact- 
ment of  the  Edmunds  Law.  As 
a  parallel  he  cited  certain  me- 
morials to  Congress  advocating 
laws  to  prohibit  Sabbath  break- 

26 


MOSES   THATCHER. 


418    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ing,  memorials  referred  to  in  a  published  report  by  Honorable 
R.  M.  Johnson,  of  Kentucky.  The  report  said :  "The  State 
has  no  more  power  to  enforce  the  observance  of  Sunday  upon 
moral  and  religious  grounds,  than  it  has  to  compel  the  citizen 
to  be  baptized,  or  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper."  "It  is  not  for  the  Legislature  to  determine  what  is 
or  what  is  not  God's  law.  In  this  matter  it  can  go  no  further 
than  to  protect  all  citizens,  of  whatever  faith,  in  the  peaceful 
exercise  of  their  rights,  leaving  each  to  interpret  God's  law  for 
himself,  *  *  *  without  being  amenable  to  any  authority 
in  the  State  for  either  his  conduct  or  his  conclusions,  so  long 
as  neither  leads  him  to  interfere  with  his  fellow  man  in  the 
exercise  of  like  rights."  These  words,  applied  to  local  condi- 
tions and  driven  home  with  fervid  eloquence,  went  straight  to 
the  hearts  of  most  of  Mr.  Thatcher's  hearers,  and  met  their 
entire  approval.  Very  different,  however,  was  the  effect  upon 
the  minority,  who  were  highly  incensed  at  the  Apostle's 
speech. 

Much  Ado  About  Nothing. — A  rumor  now  became  current 
that  the  "Mormons"  intended  to  half-mast  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  on  Pioneer  Day,  when  a  mammoth  Sunday  School 
jubilee  was  to  be  held  in  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle.  Efforts 
were  made  to  convince  the  troops  of  the  regular  army  sta- 
tioned in  the  West,  and  the  members  of  the  various  G.  A.  R. 
organizations  in  the  surrounding  States  and  Territories,  that 
their  presence  at  the  Utah  capital  would  be  desirable  on  July 
24th  in  order  to  prevent  another  insult  to  the  Emblem  of 
Liberty.  So  successful  was  this  fiction  that  General  Howard, 
at  Omaha,  in  a  telegram  to  President  Cleveland,  expressed  the 
fear  of  a  general  "Mormon"  uprising,  and  was  ordered  by  the 
Chief  Magistrate  "to  keep  all  posts  of  the  Western  Platte  De- 
partment in  full  strength  and  prepared  for  any  emergency  that 
may  arise  in  Utah  in  the  near  future." 

Again  at  Half-Mast. — Preparations  for  the  Sunday  School 
Jubilee  went  steadily  forward,  and  the  time  for  the  peaceful 
celebration  drew  near.  There  had  been  no  intention  to  half- 
mast  the  flag  on  that  occasion,  but  as  fate  would  have  it,  just 
one  day  before  the  proposed  observance  General  Grant  died, 
and  the  whole  country  bowed  above  the  great  soldier's  bier. 
Everywhere  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  half-masted  in  token 
of  the  general  sorrow.  Governor  Murray,  in  a  proclamation, 
recommended  "that  flags,  draped  in  mourning,  be  placed  on  all 
public  buildings,  and  as  far  as  practicable  on  business  houses 
and  on  the  houses  of  the  people."  He  did  not  advise  any  half- 
masting;  but  the  reason  was  obvious,  and  the  omission  did  not 
affect  the  result.  The  Jubilee  was  abandoned,  and  the  mem- 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES. 


419 


cry  of  the  departed  chieftain  duly  honored  by  all  the  people  of 
Utah. 

Lorenzo  Snow's  Arrest. — The  next  sensation  was  the  ar- 
rest of  Lorenzo  Snow,  one  of  the  senior  Apostles  of  the  Church. 
In  common  with  most  of  his  associates,  this  venerable  man  had 
gone  into  exile  at  the  beginning  of  the  reigning  troubles.  He 
traveled  for  a  season  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  North- 
west, and  spent  some  time  in  California.  Returning  to  his 
home  in  Brigham  City  about  the  middle  of  November,  1885, 
he  remained  there  until  the  20th  of  that  month,  when  he  was 
suddenly  pounced  upon  and  made  a  prisoner. 

Tactics  of  the  Raiders. — The  Apostle's  arrest  was  accom- 
plished by  seven  deputy  marshals,  who  rode  from  Ogden  be- 
tween midnight  and  daybreak  and  surrounded  the  house  in 
which  the  object  of  their  quest  lay  sleeping.  It  was  the  resi- 
dence of  Mrs.  Minnie  J.  Snow.  Deputy  Marshal  Oscar  C. 
Vandercook  headed  the  party,  which  included  Captain  J.  W. 
Greenman,  also  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  several  officers  from 
Weber  County.  Having  invested  the  premises,  they  knocked 
at  the  kitchen  door.  Day  was  just  breaking,  and  only  the 
servant  girl  was  awake.  "Who's  there?"  she  demanded.  "Is 
Brother  Snow  in?"  asked  a  voice.  Instead  of  answering  it,  the 
girl  awoke  Mrs.  Snow,  who 
from  the  windows  of  her  bed- 
room took  in  the  situation  at  a 
glance.  Surrounding  the  house, 
the  dark  forms  "  of  men  were 
dimly  discernible  in  the  grey 
light  of  morning,  while  two 
carriages  with  steaming  horses 
stood  at  the  front  gate.  The 
purpose  of  the  untimely  visit 
was  apparent.  After  more  par- 
leying, Mrs.  Snow  admitted  the 
officers,  who  presented  a  search 
warrant,  and  proceeded  to  ex- 
plore the  house  from  cellar  to 
garret.  They  were  finally  suc- 
cessful, and  in  response  to  their 
summons  the  master  of  the 
house  came  forth  and  surren- 
dered himself. 

The  peaceful  town  was 
thrown  into  a  fever  of  excite- 
ment when  it  was  learned  what 
had  taken  place.  Friends  in 
large  numbers  gathered  at  the 


LORENZO   SNOW. 


420    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Snow  residence  to  express  sympathy  and  offer  protection. 
Declining  the  proffered  interference,  the  aged  prisoner  entered 
the  carriage  with  the  officers,  and  was  driven  southward.  At 
Ogden  he  was  arraigned  before  United  States  Commissioner 
Black,  and  held  in  bonds  of  eighteen  hundred  dollars  to  await 
the  action  of  the  Grand  Jury. 

A  Deputy  Marshal  in  the  Toils. — The  sensation  caused  by 
this  capture  was  less  than  two  days  old  when  another  incident 
equally  stirring  took  place.  It  was  the  arrest  of  one  of  the 
deputies  who  had  figured  prominently  in  the  Brigham  City 
raid.  Returning  from  the  North,  he  was  alighting  from  the 
train  at  Salt  Lake  City,  when  two  policemen  took  him  into 
custody.  The  warrant  upon  which  he  was  held  had  been 
issued  from  the  Police  Court,  upon  a  complaint  filed  by  the 
City  License  Collector,  charging  the  Deputy  Marshal  with  lewd 
and  lascivious  conduct,  in  violation  of  the  local  statutes. 

Not  only  was  general  interest  awakened;  in  some  quarters 
absolute  consternation  reigned,  caused  by  a  report  that  the 
police  were  in  possession  of  a  long  list  of  names  whose  owners 
were  liable  to  be  called  to  account  for  practices  similar  to 
those  charged  against  the  defendant  in  this  action.  Upon 
whose  shoulder  the  official  hand  would  next  fall  was  uncer- 
tain, and  suspense  added  misery  to  the  fears  of  the  self-con- 
victed. But  only  four  persons  were  arrested. 

Nolle  Prosequi. — Proceedings  in  habeas  corpus,  followed 
by  an  appeal  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  suspended 
proceedings  against  the  Deputy  Marshal.  The  other  defend- 
ants, convicted  in  the  Police  Court,  were  each  fined  three  hun- 
dred dollars  and  sentenced  to  three  months'  imprisonment. 
They  appealed  to  the  District  Court,  and  there  the  whole 
movement  received  its  quietus.  It  was  shown,  not  that  the  ac- 
cused were  innocent,  but  that  lewd  women  had  been  employed 
to  tempt  them  and  lead  them  astray.  The  Assistant  U.  S. 
Attorney,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  cases,  moved  to  dismiss 
them,  and  the  motion  was  granted;  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Territory  affirming  the  judgment.  Peace  reigned  once  more 
in  many  anxious  households,  and  the  hapless  License  Col- 
lector, convicted  of  conspiracy,  was  sentenced  to  a  year's  im- 
prisonment in  the  County  Jail. 

The  Collin-McMurrin  Encounter. — A  personal  encount- 
er between  Henry  F.  Collin,  a  "Gentile"  deputy  marshal,  and 
ToFeph  W.  McMurrin,  a  "Mormon'  nightwatchman,  furn- 
ished material  for  more  excitement  during  that  effervescent 
year.  The  encounter  took  place  in  an  alley  running  east  and 
west  immediately  north  of  the  historic  Social  Hall.  The  time 
was  about  seven  p.  m.,  on  Saturday,  the  28th  of  Novem- 
ber. According  to  McMurrin's  deposition,  he  and  Collin, 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES. 


421 


who  had  exchanged  hot  words  [ 
on  a  former  occasion,  met  in 
the  alley.  McMurrin  struck  at 
Collin,  whereupon  the  latter, 
thrusting1  a  pistol  against  his 
assailant's  body,  fired  twice  and 
fled.  McMurrin  returned  the 
fire,  but  being  badly  wounded, 
two  balls  having  passed 
through  his  abdomen,  his  shot 
was  ineffective.  Staggering  in- 
to State  Street,  he  made  known 
his  condition  to  a  passerby, 
who  informed  the  police.  The 
wounded  man  was  taken  to  the 
City  Hall,  and  believing  him- 
self to  be  dying,  he  dictated  a 
statement  in  accordance  with 
the  foregoing  account. 

Meantine  Collin,  after  a 
hurried  run  to  his  home  in 
Social  Hall  Alley,  had  placed  MCMURRIN. 

himself  under  the  protection  of 

U.  S.  Marshal  Ireland,  and  was  conveyed  to  the  Penitentiary 
for  safe  keeping.  He  declared  that  four  men,  armed  with 
clubs,  had  attacked  him,  and  that  he  had  shot  one  of  them, 
the  others  running  away.  Rumors  of  a  threatened  attack 
upon  the  Penitentiary  caused  General  McCook  to  detail  an 
armed  squad  to  conduct  Collin  to  Fort  Douglas.  The  com- 
mander was  persuaded  that  the  post  itself  was  in  danger,  and 
every  precaution  was  taken  to  guard  against  an  assault. 

Groundless  Rumors. — The  rumors  were  entirely  unfound- 
ed. There  was  no  hostile  demonstration  whatever.  The  public 
mind  had  been  severely  shocked,  but  excitement  was  sub- 
clued  by  a  general  feeling  of  sorrow  over  the  impending  fate  of 
young  McMurrin.  who  was  much  esteemed.  The  usual  Sab- 
bath services  were  held,  and  many  fervent  prayers  ascended 
for  his  recovery;  but  there  were  no  incendiary  gatherings  or 
speeches,  and  no  attack  upon  the  Penitentiary  or  the  Fort  was 
dreamed  of,  except  by  those  whose  credulity  had  been  imposed 
upon  by  the  extravagant  reports  set  in  circulation.  Never- 
theless the  wires  were  kept  warm  describing  an  alleged 
arming  and  uprising  of  the  "Mormons";  sensational  telegrams 
were  sent  to  the  seat  of  Government,  and  President  Cleveland 


422    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

was  advised  to  place  Utah  under  martial  law.  He  telegraphed 
to  General  McCook,  requesting  investigation  of  the  reports, 
and  immediate  information  as  to  their  truth  or  falsity.  The 
General  informed  the  President  that  the  fear  of  an  uprising 
was  groundless,  but  suggested  an  increase  in  the  standing  force 
at  Fort  Douglas. 

Battery  "D" — A  Provost  Guard. — In  accordance  with 
General  McCook's  recommendation,  Battery  D  of  the  Fifth 
Artillery,  U.  S.  A.,  was  forwarded  from  Omaha,  arriving 
at  Salt  Lake  City  early  in  December.  There  were  sixty-five 
men,  four  rifled  steel  guns  with  caissons,  and  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  horses  to  complete  the  equipment.  As  they  filed  up 
South  Temple  Street  on  their  way  to  the  Fort,  they  surveyed 
with  wide-eyed  wonder  the  peaceful  streets  and  calm  demeanor 
of  the  populace.  One  of  the  soldiers,  an  Irishman,  was  heard 
to  inquire:  "Whaire  is  the  inimy  intrinched?"  A  volume 
could  tell  no  more  concerning  the  character  of  the  reports  that 
hsd  deceived  the  country.* 

The  arrival  of  Battery  D  made  necessary  the  finding  of 
other  quarters  for  some  of  the  soldiers  already  at  the  garrison. 
At  all  events  this  was  assigned  as  the  reason  for  sending 
Captain  Charles  G.  Pinney,  with  forty-five  men,  to  occupy 
quarters  and  act  as  a  provost  guard  within  the  city.  They 
were  stationed  just  west  of  the  old  Herald  Corner,  on  First 
South  Street,  one  block  west  of  Main. 

The  rumors  of  an  impending  outbreak  were  investigated 
by  the  City  authorities,  and  shown  to  be  utterly  without  foun- 
dation. A  copy  of  these  findings  was  sent  to  Delegate  Caine 
at  Washington,  and  by  him  laid  before  President  Cleveland. 

Close  of  the  Incident. — Two  months  later  an  examination 
in  the  McMurrin-Collin  case  was  held  before  U.  S.  Commis- 
sioner McKay.  McMurrin  was  not  present.  Collin's  version 
of  what  happened  at  the  time  of  the  encounter  in  the  alley, 
was  accepted  by  the  Commissioner  as  the  true  statement,  and 
the  deputy  was  discharged.  McMurrin's  wounds  had  been 
pronounced  fatal,  but  to  the  surprise  of  everyone  he  recovered. 
Leaving  Utah,  he  spent  four  years  in  Europe,  and  then  re- 
turned and  offered  himself  for  trial.  Diligent  search  for  an 


*An  Eastern  mercantile  firm,  influenced  by  the  warlike  news  from 
Utah,  communicated  with  Z.  C.  M.  I.,  offering  a  large  lot  of  swords, 
guns,  saddles,  and  other  military  trappings,  at  a  great  discount.  The 
proffered  bargain  was  declined,  with  the  statement  that  there  was 
no  sale  for  such  articles  in  this  Territory,  and  Z.  C.  M.  I.  did  not 
care  to  lumber  up  its  shelves  with  dead  stock. 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES. 


423 


indictment  against  him  failed  to  discover  one,  and  no  further 
action  was  taken.* 

Trial  of  Lorenzo  Snow. — -The  trial  of  Lorenzo  Snow,  who 
had  been  indicted  for  unlawful  cohabitation,  began  on  the  30th 
of  December,  about  six  weeks  after  his  arrest  at  Brigham 
City.  The  trial  took  place  in  the  District  Court  at  Ogden. 
History,  in  order  to  be  accurate,  should  say,  "trials",  since 
there  were  three  in  which  the  Apostle  figured  as  party  de- 
fendant. His  case  had  been  segregated  by  the  Grand  Jury,  and 
each  of  the  three  years,  1885,  1884,  and  1883,  was  covered  by  a 
separate  indictment.  The  indictment  for  1885  charged  that  the 
defendant  had  lived  during  that  year  with  seven  wives,  and 
upon  this  presentment  he  was 
first  arraigned. 

The  Federal  Court  room  in 
the  Junction  City  had  never 
held  a  more  interested  audience 
than  thronged  it  on  that  occa- 
sion. Judge  Powers  presided ; 
Assistant  U.  S.  Attorney  Vic- 
tor Bierbower  conducted  the 
prosecution ;  and  the  defense 
was  represented  by  Franklin  S. 
Richards,  Bennett,  Harkness, 
and  Kirkpatrick,  R.  K.  Wil- 
liams, Charles  C.  Richards  and 
Henry  H.  Rolapp.  The  jury 
were  all  "Gentiles." 

Defendants'  Wives  on  the 
Witness  Stand.— Prior  to  the 
examination  of  witnesses,  the 
defendant  stated  by  counsel 
that  in  order  to  save  time  he 
would  admit  the  relationship 

of  husband  and  wife  between  himself  and  each  of  the  women 
named  in  the  indictment.  Harriet,  Mary,  Eleanor,  and  Sarah 
Snow  then  testified  in  turn  that  they  were  the  defendant's 
wives,  but  that  he  had  not  lived  with  them  during  the  year 


JUDGE  POWERS. 


*Mr.  C.  S.  Varian,  who  was  Prosecuting  Attorney  at  the  time, 
claims  that  there  was  an  indictment  in  the  case,  but  that  he  had  it 
dismissed  at  the  request  of  Mr.  McMurrin  and  his  friends.  McMur- 
rin's  statement  differs  from  this.  He  affirms  that  after  his  return 
from  Europe,  he  with  his  brother-in-law,  Royal  B.  Young,  went  to 
see  the  Prosecuting  Attorney  about  the  matter,  and  that  Mr.  Varian 
made  careful  search  for  an  indictment,  but  could  find  none,  and  dis- 
missed his  visitor  with  the  remark  that  he  would  be  sent  for  when 
wanted.  McMurrin  was  not  sent  for,  and  nothing  further  developed. 


424     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

1885.  He  had  supported  them  and  their  children,  and  had  made 
brief  calls  upon  them,  but  had  not  slept,  eaten,  nor  lived  in 
their  homes.  Minnie  J.  Snow  testified  that  the  defendant  had 
lived  with  her  continuously  since  her  marriage.  According 
to  other  witnesses,  he  had  sat  with  his  wife  Sarah  at  a  play, 
had  ridden  in  a  carriage  with  her  and  with  Minnie,  and  had  in- 
troduced Harriet  and  Sarah  as  his  wives  in  the  Grand  Jury 
room  at  Ogden.  It  was  shown  that  he  had  transferred  to 
each  wife  her  own  home,  and  that  it  was  common  repute  in 
Brigham  City  that  for  several  years  he  had  lived  with  but  one 
wife. 

Plea  of  the  Prosecution. — Mr.  Bierbower,  in  addressing 
the  jury,  declared  that  the  defendant  had  broken  the  law  even 
by  recognizing  and  visiting  his  plural  wives.  Referring  to  the 
prominence  of  Lorenzo  Snow,  he  contended  that  this  Apostle 
stood  before  the  Court  in  a  representative  as  well  as  an  individ- 
ual capacity.  "One  word  from  his  eloquent  tongue,  or 
one  line  from  his  caustic  pen,  would  go  further  towards  set- 
tling this  vexed  question  than  any  dozen  men  in  the  'Mormon' 
Church."  "I  verily  believe,"  said  Bierbower,  "that  the  example 
of  his  conviction  will  be  more  potential  for  good  than  would 
the  conviction  of  three  score  of  the  Elders,  Deacons,  and 
Bishops." 

This  kind  of  pleading  had  become  quite  common  in  the 
Courts  of  Utah.  Judge  McKean  seems  to  have  set  the  pace 
when  he  declared  that  "a  system"  was  "on  trial  in  the  person 
of  Brigham  Young".  For  a  similar  remark  at  the  trial  of  John 
H.  Miles,  Assistant  U.  S.  Attorney  Beatty  had  been  promptly 
reproved  by  Judge  Tilford,  of  counsel  for  the  defense.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  whole  anti-polygamy  crusade  was  conducted 
in  this  spirit.  It  was  the  "Mormon"  Church,  rather  than  any 
individual,  that  was  the  real  object  of  attack. 

Argument  for  the  Defense. — The  counsel  for  Lorenzo 
Snow  characterized  the  plea  put  forth  by  Mr.  Bierbower  as  a 
virtual  request  to  the  jury  to  convict  the  defendant  for  being 
a  "Mormon"  Apostle.  They  maintained  that  Lorenzo  Snow 
stood  before  the  court  precisely  as  any  other  party  charged 
with  a  criminal  offense.  To  show  that  he  was  a  "Mormon" 
was  not  enough ;  he  must  be  proved  guilty  of  the  offense 
charged,  that  of  living  and  cohabiting  during  1885  with  all  the 
women  named  in  the  indictment.  This  had  not  been  shown.. 
The  defendant's  admission  that  these  women  were  his  wives, 
under  a  compact  considered  by  him  and  them  indissoluble,  was 
net  proof  of  cohabitation,  nor  were  his  brief,  casual,  day-time 
visits  to  their  homes.  Even  if  he  had  introduced  two  of  them 
as  his  wives  in  Weber  County,  that  was  not  Box  Elder  County, 
the  place  named  in  the  indictment.  There  was  not  a  scintilla 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES.  425 

of  evidence  that  he  had  lived  or  cohabited  with  them.  The 
habit  as  well  as  the  repute  of  marriage  must  be  shown,  in  order 
to  convict  him. 

Further  Proceedings. — The  Judge,  in  charging  the  jury, 
stated  that  if  they  found  the  defendant  had  held  out  to  the 
world  two  or  more  women  as  his  wives  during  1885,  they  were 
to  bring  in  a  verdict  of  guilty.  Such  a  verdict  was  rendered 
the  same  evening. 

The  second  trial,  based  upon  the  indictment  for  1884,  oc- 
curred on  the  4th  and  5th  of  January,  1886.  It  was  practically 
a  repetition  of  the  first  trial,  with  some  original  features.  A 
plea  by  the  defense  that  the  former  conviction  should  bar 
further  prosecution,  was  demurred  to  by  Mr.  Bierbower,  and 
the  court  sustained  the  demurrer.  Except  for  a  statement  by 
one  of  the  witnesses,  Henry  E.  Bowring,  that  Adeline  Snow 
was  reputed  to  be  the  first  wife  of  Lorenzo  Snow,  the  testi- 
mony was  much  the  same  as  that  given  on  the  former  oc- 
casion. At  the  first  trial  the  defendant  had  been  convicted  for 
holding  out  to  the  world  more  than  one  woman  as  his  wives, 
regardless  of  marital  intimacy.  Now  he  was  convicted  because 
of  his  admitted  intimacy  with  Minnie,  and  the  reputed  fact  that 
his  legal  wife  was  Adeline;  intimacy  with  her  being  presumed. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  second  trial,  a  jury  was 
empaneled  from  the  spectators  present,  and  the  defendant,  who 
had  assented  to  this  arrangement,  was  tried  at  once  on  the  in- 
dictment for  1883.  The  testimony  and  verdict  were  identical 
with  those  previously  given. 

A  Triple  Sentence. — Judge  Powers  sentenced  the  defend- 
ant on  the  16th  of  January;  first,  however,  permitting  him  to 
address  the  court  in  his  own  behalf.  The  Apostle  affirmed  his 
belief  in  the  principle  of  plural  marriage,  and  his  reverence  for 
the  laws  of  his  country.  Asserting  his  innocence,  he  declared 
that  he  had  been  convicted  without  evidence,  and  declined  to 
make  any  statement  as  to  what  he  would  do  in  the  future. 
Three  separate  sentences  were  then  pronounced  upon  him, 
erich  imposing  a  fine  of  three  hundred  dollars,  and  imprison- 
ment for  a  period  of  six  months.  Pending  his  appeal,  he  con- 
tinued on  bail  in  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars. 

The  Legal  Wife. — In  February  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Territory  rendered  a  decision  in  the  case  for  1885,  Chief  Justice 
Zane  voicing  the  decree.  He  held  that  Sarah,  not  Adeline, 
was  the  legal  wife  of  Lorenzo  Snow,  since  Adeline  was  un- 
derstood to  be  one  of  two  women  married  to  him  at  the  same 
time;  Charlotte,  the  other  woman,  being  dead.  This  double 
marriage  was  illegal,  and  consequently  void.  Sarah,  the  next 
woman  married  to  him,  was  therefore  the  legal  wife.  Intimacy 


426    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

with  her  was  presumed,  and  intimacy  with  Minnie  was  not 
denied.  The  decision  affirmed  that  of  the  court  below. 

The  cases  for  1884  and  1883  were  passed  upon  a  week 
later.  In  the  first  of  these,  Judge  Boreman  who  was  spokes- 
man, took  issue  with  the  Chief  Justice  as  to  who  was  the  legal 
wife  of  the  defendant.  There  was  no  evidence,  he  said,  that 
Adeline  and  Charlotte  were  married  at  the  same  time,  and 
Boreman  therefore  agreed  with  Powers  that  Adeline  must  be 
regarded  as  the  legal  wife.  Upon  the  most  important  point 
of  all — segregation — Boreman  cited  a  Massachusetts  opinion, 
in  which  it  had  been  held  that  a  conviction  for  maintaining  a 
tenement  for  the  illegal  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  was  not  a 
bar  to  an  indictment  found  for  maintaining  the  same  tenement 
on  the  last  day  named  in  the  first  indictment  and  on  other  days 
succeeding.  This  case,  the  Judge  thought,  furnished  a  parallel 
to  the  present  proceedings.  The  District  Court  was  sustained. 

In  the  remaining  case  Judge  Powers  spoke  for  the  Court, 
affirming,  or  helping  to  affirm,  his  own  decision;  an  incident 
exhibiting  in  a  strong  light  the  inconsistency  of  allowing  but 
three  Federal  judges  to  a  Territory;  an  inconsistency  about 
to  be  done  away  with  in  Utah  by  the  appointment  of  a  fourth 
magistrate  for  the  Supreme  Bench. 

Carried  to  Washington. — The  questions  involved  in  the 
Snow  case  were  of  sufficient  importance  to  warrant  an  appeal 
to  the  highest  tribunal  in  the  land.  Chief  Justice  Zane  granted 
a  writ  of  error  for  that  purpose,  and  the  case  was  carried  to 
Washington.  In  order  to  furnish  sufficient  reason  for  its  ad- 
vancement upon  the  calendar,  the  defendant  surrendered  him- 
self a  prisoner  to  the  United  States  Marshal,  and  on  the  12th  of 
March  was  taken  to  the  Penitentiary. 

The  Old  Utah  "Pen."— The  Utah  Penitentiary  at  that 
time  was  little  more  than  a  corral,  a  rectangular  mud-wall  en- 
closure, containing  several  acres  of  ground  and  two  or  three 
small  houses,  one  of  which,  a  low  log  structure,  served  the 
double  purpose  of  dining  room  and  meeting  hall,  while  an- 
other, a  stone  building,  was  used  as  a  dormitory.  The  beds 
were  arranged  along  the  sides,  one  above  another.  The  pris- 
oners were  locked  in  at  night,  and  let  out  in  the  morning. 
They  might  wander  at  will  over  the  ample  space  within  the 
walls,  but  must  not  pass  without  permission  "the  dead  line," 
near  a  pair  of  heavy  wooden  and  iron  gates,  the  only  means 
of  egress  from  the  yard.  Armed  guards  patrolled  the  walls 
and  looked  down  from  sentry  boxes  at  the  corners  of  the  en- 
closure. An  iron  cage  called  "the  sweat  box,"  in  which  re- 
fractory convicts  were  placed,  stood  in  one  corner.  The 
Warden's  house,  where  female  prisoners  were  kept,  was  out- 
side the  gates  and  virtually  a  part  of  the  high  mud  wall,  and 


SENSATIONAL  KIMSODKS.  427 


THE  OLD  UTAH      PEN. 

the  same  was  true  of  the  kitchen  and  store  rooms.  One  of 
these  was  also  a  reception  room,  where  the  inmates  might  re- 
ceive visitors  on  certain  days. 

The  male  convict,  on  entering  the  Penitentiary,  was 
clothed  in  the  usual  zebraic  costume  (white  and  black  stripes), 
and  unless  health  conditions  demanded  a  deviation  from  the 
rule,  his  hair  was  close  cropped  and  his  face  clean  shaven.  It 
was  customary  with  the  prisoners  to  make  merry  at  the  ex- 
pense of  each  new  arrival,  who  was  given  his  choice  whether  to 
sing  a  song,  dance  a  jig,  or  be  thrown  up  in  a  blanket.  Some- 
times a  rope  was  tied  around  him  and  a  mock  hanging  indulged 
in.  These  hazings,  however,  were  discontinued,  by  order  of 
the  United  States  Marshal.  No  indignity  was  put  upon  Elder 
Snow,  and  he  was  permitted  to  wear  his  full  flowing  beard  all 
the  while  he  was  in  prison. 

George  Q.  Cannon  Taken — Efforts  continued  to  be  ex- 
erted for  the  discovery  and  arrest  of  the  "Mormon"  leaders, 
and  finally  the  man  most  wanted  by  the  officers  fell  into  their 
power.  That  man  was  George  Q.  Cannon,  Ex-Delegate  to 
Congress  and  First  Counselor  to  the  President  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church.  Because  of  his  great  influence,  it  was  supposed 
that  his  conviction  and  imprisonment  would  go  far  toward  in- 
ducing a  surrender  on  the  part  of  the  entire  community.  -For 
information  leading  to  his  capture,  the  United  States  Marshal 
had  offered  a  reward  of  five  hundred  dollars.  The  date  of  his 


428    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

arrest  was  Saturday  February  13,  1886;  the  place,  Humboldt 
Wells,  Nevada. 

President  Cannon,  at  .the  request  of  President  Taylor,  had 
set  out  for  Mexico,  to  conclude  negotiations  for  the  purchase 
of  lands  in  that  country;  and  traveling  with  him  were  Elders 
Erastus  Snow,  Samuel  H.  Hill  and  Orson  P.  Arnold.  Their 
journey  had  begun  at  Salt  Lake  City,  from  which  point,  as  far 
as  Ogden,  they  occupied  for  prudential  reasons  a  freight  car. 
At  Ogden  they  took  team  to  the  vicinity  of  Willard,  and  there, 
on  the  night  of  February  12th,  boarded  a  west-bound  Central 
Pacific  passenger  train.  Next  morning,  at  Winnemucca,  Ne- 
vada, Sheriff  Fellows,  of  Humboldt  County,  got  upon  the 
train  and  rode  as  far  as  the  Wells,  where  a  stop  was  made  for 
dinner.  The  Sheriff  had  received  a  telegram  from  Marshal 
Ireland,  requesting  him  to  arrest  George  Q.  Cannon,  who 
would  be  found  in  the  sleeper  "Santa  Clara."  To  whom  the 
Marshal  was  indebted  for  this  information,  the  public  never 
learned;  but  it  was  supposed  that  a  brakeman  had  recognized 
President  Cannon  and  wired  the  news  to  the  Utah  capital,  thus 
earning  the  promised  reward.  Sheriff  Fellows  arrested  his 
man  and  took  him  from  the  train.  Mr.  Arnold  followed,  leav- 
ing the  rest  of  the  party  to  continue  their  journey.  The  Sheriff 
and  his  prisoner  returned  to  Winnemucca,  and  there  met 
Marshal  Ireland  and  Captain  Greenman,  just  from  Salt  Lake 
City. 

Alleged  Attempt  to  Escape. — The  Marshal  and  his  party, 
with  President  Cannon  in  custody,  took  the  Utah-bound  pass- 
enger train  on  the  afternoon  of  the  15th.  Early  next  morn- 
ing, after  the  train  had  passed  Promontory,  an  incident  oc- 
curred regarding  which  two  different  accounts  became  current. 
President  Cannon,  according  to  his  own  statement,  had  been 
ill  during  the  night,  and  was  upon  the  rear  platform  of  the 
last  car,  inhaling  the  fresh  air,  when  a  sudden  lurch  threw  him 
off  his  balance.  Missing  the  hand  rail,  he  alighted  at  full 
length  upon  the  frozen  ground.  The  fall  well-nigh  stunned 
him ;  his  nose  was  broken,  and  an  ugly  gash  cut  over  the  left 
eye.  Partly  regaining  consciousness,  he  found  himself  alone 
in  the  midst  of  a  bleak  uninhabited  waste.  He  was  soon  found, 
however,  by  Captain  Greenman,  who  had  come  back  to  look 
for  him,  and  at  the  hotel  in  Promontory  Marshal  Ireland  re- 
joined them. 

Brought  Back  by  the  Military. — A  belief  that  the  prisoner 
had  attempted  to  escape,  supplemented  by  a  report  that  his 
friends  intended  to  take  him  by  force  from  the  Marshal,  caused 
that  officer  to  make  a  requisition  for  troops  to  assist  him  in 
bringing  home  the  captive.  Governor  Murray  endorsed  the 
requisition,  and  it  was  honored  by  the  Fort  Douglas  author- 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES.  429 

ities;  Captain  Pinney,  of  the  Provost  Guard,  with  twenty- 
seven  men,  being  detailed  for  the  service. 

At  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  17th  the  Marshal 
and  his  prisoner  again  set  out  for  Salt  Lake  City — this  time 
011  a  special  train  in  which  President  Cannon  occupied  Bishop 
Sharp's  private  car,  which  had  been  sent  for  him.  The  armed 
squad  surrounded  the  improvised  couch  upon  which  he  rested. 
Just  before  reaching  Ogden  the  soldiers  were  ordered  to  load 
their  guns ;  the  phantom  of  the  rumored  rescue  still  haunting 
the  minds  of  their  superiors.  All  was  quiet  at  the  Junction 
City,  and  likewise  at  the  Territorial  capital,  where  the  special 
arrived  shortly  before  eight  a.  m.  The  soldiers  alighted  first, 
and  through  the  grim  files  the  bruised  and  bandaged  prisoner 
was  lifted  into  a  hack  and  conveyed  to  the  office  of  the  United 
States  Marshal. 

Excessive  Bail  Demanded. — President  Cannon  faced  three 
charges  for  unlawful  cohabitation,  his  case  having  been  segre- 
gated. Bail  was  demanded  in  the  sum  of  forty-five  thousand 
dollars.  For  $25,000  of  this  amount  John  Sharp  and  Fera- 
morz  Little  became  his  bondsmen,  while  for  the  remaining 
$20,000  Francis  Armstrong  and  Horace  S.  Eldredge  were  ac- 
cepted as  sureties.  The  prisoner  was  then  delivered  into  the 
care  of  his  family. 

Bonds  Forfeited. — President  Cannon's  trial  was  set  for 
March  17,  at  10  a.  m.  The  hour  arrived,  but  the  man  did  not 
appear.  While  awaiting  his  coming,  the  Court  passed  sentence 
upon  his  son,  Abraham  H.  Cannon,  who  had  been  convicted  of 
unlawful  cohabitation  upon  testimony  furnished  by  himself. 
President  Cannon  still  failing  to  appear,  his  bond  was  declared 
forfeited,  and  the  amount,  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  was 
required  of  his  sureties,  Sharp  and  Little,  who  promptly  paid 
it.  The  bonds  for  twenty  thousand  dollars  were  subsequently 
forfeited  in  like  manner,  but  in  this  case  the  sureties,  Arm- 
strong and  Eldredge,  decided  to  test  in  the  courts  the  ques- 
tin  of  excessive  bail.  They  therefore  withheld  payment,  and 
a  suit  instituted  against  them  for  the  amount,  after  passing 
through  the  Utah  courts,  was  carried  to  Washington,  where 
the  Ex-Delegate  succeeded  in  having  it  dismissed.  Eventually 
the  amount  paid  by  his  other  bondsmen  was  restored  to  him 
by  Act  of  Congress. 

"Mormon"  Women's  Protest. — Early  in  March  a  mass 
meeting  of  "Mormon"  women  had  convened  in  the  Salt  Lake 
Theatre  and  issued  an  indignant  protest  against  the  treatment 
meted  out  to  their  sex  in  the  Federal  Courts  and  in  other  places 
by  representatives  of  the  Government.  Stress  was  laid  upon 
the  character  of  questions  put  to  female  witnesses  in  the  Grand 


430    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Jury  Room,  concerning  which  the  protest  said:  "In  order  to 
fasten  the  semblance  of  guilt  upon  men  accused  of  this  of- 
fense (unlawful  cohabitation)  women  are  arrested  and  forcibly 
taken  before  sixteen  men  and  plied  with  questions  that  no 
decent  woman  can  hear  without  a  blush.  Little  children  are 
examined  upon  the  secret  relations  of  their  parents,  and  wives 
in  regard  to  their  condition  and  the  doings  of  their  hus- 
bands. If  they  decline  to  answer,  they  are  imprisoned  in  the 
Penitentiary  as  if  they  were  criminals."  The  lack  of  consider- 
ation shown  by  deputy  marshals  in  their  midnight  visits  to  the 
homes  of  the  people,  was  also  mentioned;  one  case  cited  being 
a  raid  upon  Greenville,  near  Beaver,  where  Deputy  Marshals 
Gleason  and  Thompson  conducted  themselves  toward  a  num- 
ber of  ladies  in  a  reprehensible  manner.  Efforts  on  the  part 
of  the  courts  to  induce  legal  wives  to  testify  against  their  hus- 
bands, were  likewise  made  a  subject  of  complaint.  A  me- 
morial protesting  against  such  acts  was  sent  to  the  seat  of 
Government. 

Other  Notable  Arrests. — Among  the  Elders  arrested  in 
1886  were  Seymour  B.  Young  and  Brigham  H.  Roberts,  of  the 
First  Council  of  the  Seventy.  Mr.  Young,  son  of  Joseph 
Young  and  nephew  to  the  great  Pioneer,  was  one  of  the  vet- 
erans who  responded  to  the  call  of  President  Lincoln  in  1862, 
for  a  company  of  Utah  cavalry  to  guard  the  overland  mail 

route  and  telegraph  line.  He 
had  also  figured  in  the  Black 
Hawk  Indian  War,  and  at  an 
earlier  period  as  a  missionary, 
one  of  a  company  that  crossed 
the  plains  with  hand  carts  in 
1857.  Mr.  Roberts  has  been 
introduced  to  the  reader  as  the 
acting  President  of  the  South- 
ern States  Mission  at  the  time 
of  the  Cane  Creek  Massacre. 
Charles  O.  Card,  President  of 
Cache  Stake;  and  William  E. 
Bassett,  successor  to  Bishop 
Sharp  in  the  Twentieth  Ward 
of  Salt  Lake  Stake,  were  like- 
wise taken  into  custody.  All 
four  were  charged  with  unlaw- 
ful cohabitation,  and  Bishop 
Bassett  with  polygamy  as  well. 
Young  and  Card  escaped  from 
the  officers,  but  the  former  re- 
SEYMOUR  B.  YOUNG  turned  and  delivered  himself  to 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES.  431 

the  law,  whereupon  his  case  was  dismissed;  the  latter  pro- 
ceeded to  Canada,  where  he  founded  Cardston,  the  first  "Mor- 
mon" settlement  in  the  province  of  Alberta.  Mr.  Roberts  also 
absented  himself,  refusing  to  be  tried  under  existing  condi- 
tions. He  labored  for  nearly  two  years  in  the  European 
Mission,  and  then  returned,  gave  himself  up,  and  underwent  a 
brief  term  of  imprisonment. 

The  Bassett  Case. — The  Bassett  case  became  noted  for 
the  reason  that  the  defendant  was  convicted  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  his  former  legal  wife,  who  was  permitted  to  appear 
in  court  against  him.  Chief  Justice  Zane  had  ruled  that  a 
legal  wife  was  a  competent  witness  against  her  husband  when 
the  husband  had  committed  a  crime  against  the  wife,  and  he 
held  that  marriage  with  a  plural  wife  constituted  such  a  crime. 
Judge  Henderson,  who  had  succeeded  Judge  Powers,  followed 
in  the  wake  of  the  Chief  Justice,  and  it  was  before  him,  in 
the  District  Court  at  Ogden,  that  Bishop  Bassett  came  to  trial. 
He  was  convicted,  but  the  .judgment,  after  being  confirmed 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory,  was  reversed^by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.* 

G.  A.  R.  Visitors. — In  midsummer  of  1886  several  large 
detachments  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  passed 
through  Utah,  traveling  from  the  East  to  San  Francisco,  where 
a  great  encampment  was  to  be  held.  They  stopped  over  long 
enough  to  warm  themselves  at  a  series  of  "campfires,"  kindled 
in  their  honor  at  the  Skating  Rink  in  Salt  Lake  City.  General 
John  A.  Logan  was  the  principal  figure  among  them,  and  an 
address  by  him  on  the  character  and  power  of  the  American 
Government  was  the  most  meritorious  feature  on  any  of  the 
programs.  Several  local  orators  contributed  to  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  guests,  and  a  strong  "Anti-Mormon"  flavor  was 
imparted  to  the  proceedings;  "Mormon  disloyalty"  being  the 
main  theme  dwelt  upon. 

*Rishop  Bassett  was  arrested  in  October,  1886,  and  tried  and  con- 
victed in  January,  1887.  His  case  was  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Utah  in  the  following  February.  Early  in  March  it  was  carried  on  a 
writ  of  error  to  Washington.  There  it  was  heard  during  the  October 
term  of  1890.  The  Court  of  Last  Resort,  in  rendering  its  decision, 
used  this  language;  "The  wife  is  not  competent,  except  in  cases  of 
violence  upon  her  person,  directly  to  criminate  her  husband,  or  to 
disclose  that  which  she  has  learned  from  him  in  their  confidential 
intercourse.  This  rule  is  founded  upon  the  deepest  and  soundest 
principles  which  have  grown  out  of  those  domestic  relations  that  con- 
stitute the  basis  of  civil  society,  and  which  are  essential  to  the  en- 
joyment of  that  confidence  which  should  subsist  between  those  who 
are  connected  by  the  nearest  and  dearest  relations  of  life.  To  break 
down  or  impair  the  great  principles  which  protect  the  sanctities  of 
husband  and  wife,  would  be  to  destroy  the  best  solace  of  human  exist- 
ence."—Bassett  vs.  United  States  137  U.  S.  496. 


432     WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


The  Thompson-Dalton  Homicide. — The  close  of  the  year 
witnessed  a  tragedy  that  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  Utah. 
It  was  the  killing  of  Edward  M.  Dalton,  a  reputable  citizen  of 
Parowan,  Iron  County,  by  U.  S.  Deputy  Marshal  William 
Thompson,  Jr.,  already  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
raid  upon  Greenville.  Thompson,  at  the  time  of  the  killing, 
was  endeavoring  to  arrest  Dalton  for  an  infraction  of  the 
Edmunds  Law.  The  latter  had  previously  been  arrested  upon 
the  same  charge — unlawful  cohabitation — but  had  escaped. 
He  spent  several  months  in  Arizona,  and  then  returned  to 
Parowan.  For  the  purpose  of  apprehending  him,  Thompson, 
with  Deputy  Marshal  William  O.  Orton,  rode  from  Beaver 
during  the  night,  and  at  Parowan  put  up  at  a  hotel  kept  by 
Daniel  Page,  an  apostate  "Mormon."  Some  of  the  deputies 
had  been  heard  to  say  that  they  would  shoot  Dalton  rather 
than  permit  him  to  again  escape.  It  remained  for  Thompson 
to  carry  out  the  threat. 

It  was  the  forenoon  of  the  16th  of  December,  and  Dalton, 
mounted,  unarmed,  and  apparently  unsuspicious  of  danger, 
was  driving  a  herd  of  cattle  past  Page's  place,  which  was  on 
a  corner,  when,  from  the  back  yard  of  the  hotel,  he  was  hailed 
by  loud  voices  and  commanded  to  halt.  Almost  immediately 
a  shot  was  fired,  and  Dalton  fell  from  his  horse  mortally 

wounded.  Friends  rushed  to 
the  scene,  and  the  dying  man 
was  carried,  first  into  the  hotel, 
and  then  toward  his  mother's 
home,  but  expired  before  reach- 
ing there. 

Deputy  Marshal  Thompson, 
who  had  fired  the  shot,  de- 
clared that  Dalton,  on  being 
hailed,  "turned  his  horse  and 
started  to  get  away."  He  also 
stated  that  he  tried  to  fire  over 
Dalton,  but  the  gun  went  off 
sooner  than  he  expected.  Other 
witnesses  disputed  the  asser- 
tion that  Dalton  attempted  to 
escape,  and  the  coroner's  jury 
decided  that  the  killing  was 
felonious. 

The  whole  town  was  grief- 
stricken   and  burning  with   in- 
dignation.    Dalton's  slayer,  ar- 
EDWARD  M.  DALTON  rested  by  Sheriff  Adams,  was 


SENSATIONAL  EPISODES. 


433 


taken  before  Justice  Henderson,  where  he  waived  examina- 
tion and  was  held  to  answer  to  the  Grand  Jury.  Most  of  the 
members  of  that  body — which  Thompson,  it  seems,  had  se- 
lected by  the  open  venire  process — accompanied  or  followed 
a  posse  of  deputy  marshals  who  rode  in  haste  from  Beaver  with 
a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  take  the  prisoner  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  Sheriff.  They  had  no  trouble  in  securing  the  persons  of 
Thompson  and  Orton,  who  were  given  a  hearing  before  Judge 
Boreman  and  admitted  to  bail. 

Marshal  Dyer's  Attitude. — Frank  H.  Dyer  was  then 
United  States  Marshal  for  Utah,  having  succeeded  Mr.  Ireland 
in  the  previous  June.  Thomp- 
son telegraphed  to  Dyer  his 
version  of  the  affair.  The  Mar- 
shal was  horrified  at  the  act 
of  his  subordinate,  and  at  once 
revoked  his  commission.  He 
declared  that  Thompson's 
course  was  "absolutely  unjus- 
tifiable," since  Dalton  was 
charged  only  with  a  misde- 
meanor, and  in  such  cases  an 
officer  had  no  right  to  shoot. 

In  Thompson's  Behalf.— 
On  the  other  hand  it  was  con- 
tended that  a  homicide  was 
excusable  under  the  Territorial 
statutes  when  committed  by  an 
officer  while  endeavoring  to 
arrest  a  person  charged  with 
an  offense  punishable  by  im- 
prisonment in  the  Penitentiary, 
provided  the  killing  were  nec- 
essary in  order  to  prevent  an 
escape.  Most  of  the  people, 
however,  stood  by  Marshal  Dyer's  interpretation  of  the  law 
--that  the  right  to  shoot  was  limited  to  cases  in  which  a  felony 
had  been  committed  by,  or  was  charged  against,  the  person 
attempting  to  escape,  and  did  not  apply  to  one  accused  of  a 
mere  misdemeanor.  That  Dalton's  alleged  offense  was  a  mis- 
demeanor, the  Edmunds  Law  plainly  stated. 

Tried  and  Acquitted. — What  the  outcome  would  be 
was  evident  to  trie  public  long  before  the  trial  occurred.  It 
was  well  understood  that  Thompson's  course  was  justified 
by  those  who  would  prosecute  and  sit  in  judgment  upon  .him. 
His  acquittal  surprised  nobody. 

Mr.  Varian's  Position. — It  is  only  just  to  the  Assistant- 
27 


MARSHAL  DYER 


434    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

U.  S.  Attorney,  who  went  from  Salt  Lake  City  to  prosecute 
Thompson  for  manslaughter — this  being  the  indictment  in  the 
case — that  his  position  in  that  unfortunate  affair  should  be 
clearly  understood.  Dalton's  friends  asserted  that  the  Prose- 
cuting Attorney's  statement  of  the  case  was  virtually  a  plea  for 
the  defense,  and  that  the  same  was  true  of  the  Judge's  charge 
to  the  Jury.  Mr.  Varian,  in  a  recently  published  account,  says : 

"It  was  the  duty  of  the  United  States  Attorney  to  state 
the  law  governing  the  case  to  the  court  and  jury  as  he  under- 
stood it,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  trial  judge  to  direct  the 
jury  as  to  the  law  as  he  found  it  to  be.  In  my  address  to  the 
court  *  *  *  I  reviewed  the  acts  of  Congress  on  the  sub- 
ject of  crimes  from  the  foundation  of  the  Government,  with 
the  conclusion  that  there  was  no  Federal  statute  defining 
felonies  or  misdemeanors,  and  that  the  distinction  observed  by 
the  common  law  was  not  applicable  and  could  not  be  made 
effective  under  our  system."  "I  further  contended  that  the 
Territorial  law  relative  to  arrests  was  not  applicable,  and  was 
not  the  rule  by  which  the  acts  of  Government  officers,  execut- 
ing the  process  of  the  United  States  courts,  were  to  be  tested." 
He  affirmed  that  the  United  States  Government  had  the 
power,  through  its  officers,  "to  employ  all  means  necessary 
to  arrest  and  bring  to  the  judgment  of  its  courts  offenders 
who  had  been  indicted  for  violation  of  its  laws,"  and  "the  presi- 
ding Judge  (Boreman)  so  charged  the  jury."  Mr.  Varian 
claims  that  "the  law,  as  asserted  by  the  District  Attorney  and 
announced  by  the  Court,  was  recognized  and  approved"  at 
Washington. 

The  Opposite  View. — The  Deseret  News  denounced  the 
whole  proceeding  as  a  "farce,"  and  condemned  the  verdict  in 
unmeasured  terms.  It  went  so  far  as  to  brand  Thompson  as 
a  murderer.  A  libel  suit  followed,  the  slayer  of  Dalton,  with 
Mr.  Varian  as  his  attorney,  placing  his  damages  at  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars.  Having  been  acquitted,  and  his  commission 
restored  to  him,  the  judicially  exonerated  Deputy  had  the 
News  people  at  a  disadvantage.  The  publishers,  rather  than 
risk  a  trial,  compromised  the  case,  and  the  matter  so  ended. 


XXX. 
THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN. 

1886-1887. 

President  Cleveland's  Policy. — It  was  a  cloudy  and  a  dark 
day  for  Utah,  and  was  destined  to  be  darker  still  before  the 
storm  passed  and  the  day  broke.  President  Cleveland  was  a 
friend  to  the  Territory,  and  desired  the  welfare  of  its  people. 
But  he  was  slow  to  make  official  changes,  and  this,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  majority  here,  was  precisely  the  thing  most 
needed  at  that  particular  time.  The  President's  conscientious 
adherence  to  the  policy  of  Civil 
Service  Reform  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  his  inaction  in 
the  premises.  Furthermore,  he 
was  no  doubt  reluctant  to  dis- 
place officials  who  had  made 
the  first  effective  moves  against 
an  institution  condemned  alike 
by  Democrats  and  Republicans, 
and  who  therefore  had  public 
sympathy  to  lean  upon.  While 
no  petty  calculating  politician, 
but  a  man  who  dared  do  right, 
regardless  of  consequences  to 
himself,  he  owed  it  to  the  party 
which  had  placed  him  at  the 
helm  of  Government  not  to  put 
weapons,  if  he  could  avoid  it, 
into  the  hands  of  their  political 
opponents. 

Governor  Murray's  Exit. — 
It  was  a  full  year  after  Cleve- 
land's inauguration  when  he 
called  upon  Governor  Murray 

to  resign.  The  latter  had  continued  in  the  Governorship 
longer  than  any  of  his  predecessors  excepting  Brigham  Young. 
Popular  with  the  "Anti-Mormons,"  he  was  essentially  their 
Governor;  the  majority  of  the  people  having  little  cause  to 
love  him.  His  hospitable  nature — for  he  was  a  true  son  of  the 
South  in  that  respect — accounted  for  much  of  his  popularity 
with  those  who  rallied  round  him.  But  he  also  aided  in  the 
furtherance  of  their  plans,  and  they  would  have  been  ungrate- 
ful indeed  had  they  not  appreciated  his  devotion  and  service. 

The  immediate  cause  of  Murray's  removal  grew  out  of  the 
controversy  between  the  Governor  and  the  Legislature,  over 


PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND 


436    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


the  right  to  appoint  certain  Territorial  officers.  Incensed  at 
the  refusal  of  the  Council  to  confirm  his  appointments,  the 
Executive  in  1886,  as  in  1884  and  1882,  withheld  his  signature 
from  several  very  important  measures  passed  by  the  local  law- 
makers ;  his  crowning  act  being  the  veto  of  the  General  Appro- 
priation Bill. 

The  Legislature  adjourned  on  the  12th  of  March.  Imme- 
diately thereafter  Governor  Murray  issued  a  proclamation  ap- 
pointing Arthur  Pratt  Auditor, 
Bolivar  Roberts  Treasurer,  and 
Parley  L.  Williams  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools  for  the  Ter- 
ritory; positions  then  held  re- 
spectively by  Nephi  W.  Clay- 
ton, James  Jack,  and  L.  John 
Nuttall.  These  gentlemen  had 
been  elected  according  to  law, 
and  commissioned  by  Governor 
Murray  himself.  Suits  for  the 
possession  of  the  offices  were 
instituted  in  the  Third  District 
Court,  which  tribunal,  and  sub- 
sequently the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  Territory,  decided  in 
favor  of  the  Governor's  ap- 
pointees. Appeals  were  then 
taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States. 

Murray's  action  in  making 
these  appointments  met  the 
approval  of  the  Supreme  Court 
at  Washington,  which  event- 
ually decided  that  the  Governor 
But  the  veto  of  the  Appropria- 
tion Bill  cost  him  his  place;  this  action  displeasing  the  Presi- 
dent, who,  a  few  days  later,  sent  a  request  for  his  resignation. 
The  request,  transmitted  through  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  was  promptly  acted  upon.  The  Ex-Governor 
remained  in  Utah  for  a  season,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar, 
but  did  not  practice  as  an  attorney,  and  soon  after  took  his 
departure  from  the  Territory.* 


N.  W.  CLAYTON 


was  right  in  his  contention. 


*Murray  went  to  California.  Several  years  later  he  called  upon 
Presidents  Wilford  Woodruff  and  George  Q.  Cannon  at  San  Diego, 
they  happening  to  be  there  on  a  visit,  and  during  the  course  of  the 
interview  he  expressed  regret  for  some  of  his  official  acts  in  this  Ter- 
ritory. The  Ex-Governor  solicited  the  Ex-Delegate's  influence  at 
Washington  in  behalf  of  a  relative  who  was  seeking  a  Federal  ap- 
pointment. The  desired  influence  was  not  withheld. 


THE  DA^K  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  437 

Lieutenant  Young's  Application. — About  the  time  that 
Ex-Governor  Murray  applied  for  admission  to  the  Utah  Bar, 
a  similar  application  was  made  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Territory  by  Lieutenant  Richard  W.  Young,  U.  S.  A.,  who  was 
then  stationed  at  Fort  Douglas.  Prompt  action  was  taken 
in  Murray's  case,  but  not  in  Young's,  although  he  presented  to 
the  Judges  his  certificate  as  a  practicing  attorney  in  the  high- 
est courts  of  the  State  of  New  York.  Much  to  his  surprise, 
he  was  required  to  undergo  a  special  examination,  the  obvious 
reason  being  his  membership  in  the  "Mormon"  Church.  While 
perfectly  eligible  for  admission,  Lieutenant  Young  was  not 
willing  to  submit  to  a  religious  test  of  his  qualifications,  and 
so  pressed  the  matter  no  further  at  that  time.  Subsequently, 
tinder  more  favorable  conditions,  he  again  applied  for  ad- 
mission, and  was  accepted  as  a  practitioner  in  the  Utah 
courts. 

General  McCook  Transferred. — Governor  Murray's  re- 
moval was  followed  by  the  transfer  of  General  McCook  to  Fort 
Leavenworth,  where  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Military 
School  of  Application.  McCook  and  Murray  were  intimate 
friends,  and  the  post  commander  was  thought  to  be  more  or 
less  in  sympathy  with  the  Executive  in  some  of  his  ultra  offi- 
cial acts.  The  transfer,  viewed  by  the  General's  friends  as  a 
compliment,  was  regarded  by  most  of  the  citizens  as  a  reproof 
for  the  part  played  by  him  in  those  sensational  proceed- 
ings. 

Other  Changes. — Sundry  changes  followed  in  the  civic  list 
of  the  Territory.  Marshal  Ireland  was  permitted  to  serve  out 
his  term,  and  was  then  succeeded  by  Marshal  Dyer,  as  previ- 
ously mentioned.  Dyer  was  a  native  of  Mississippi,  but  at  the 
time  of  his  appointment  a  resident  of  Park  City,  Utah,  where 
he  had  an  ore-hauling  contract  for  some  of  the  big  mines  in 
that  vicinity.  Judge  Powers,  whose  appointment  had  met 
with  strong  opposition  from  the  State  of  Michigan,  and  whose 
name,  after  being  submitted  to  the  Senate,  had  been  with- 
drawn by  the  President,  retired  from  the  service  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  August,  1886.  His  successor  was  Henry  P.  Hen- 
derson, from  the  same  State.  Judges  Powers  and  Henderson 
became  permanent  residents  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  they,  as 
well  as  Marshal  Dyer  and  Judge  Zane,  were  destined  to  end 
their  days  here. 

Governor  West. — Caleb  W.  West  was  the  next  Governor 
of  Utah.  Like  his  predecessor,  he  was  from  Kentucky,  but 
unlike  Murray  was  a  Democrat,  and  had  fought  upon  the  Con- 
federate side  during  the  Civil  War.  In  his  native  State  hfe 


438    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


held  the  position  of  County  Judge  when  the  appointment 
came  that  brought  him  to  this  Territory.  It  had  long  been 
his  desire  to  govern  one  of  the  Western  dependencies,  and  the 
ambition  was  encouraged  by  his  friend,  Mr.  Carlisle,  Speaker 
of  the  national  House  of  Representatives.  Accordingly  the 
matter  was  presented  to  President  Cleveland,  and  as  soon  as 
he  had  decided  to  remove  Murray,  West  was  singled  out  as  his 
successor. 

A  General  Welcome. — Governor  West    arrived    at    Salt 
Lake  City  on  the  5th  of  May,  1886,  and  was  welcomed  by  all 

classes  of  citizens;  "Mormon" 
and  "Gentile"  delegations 
meeting  him  at  Ogden,  and  es- 
corting him  to  the  capital.  In 
the  evening,  from  the  balcony 
of  the  Walker  House,  he  ad- 
dressed the  multitude,  express- 
ing good  will  toward  all  the 
people  of  the  Territory,  and  a 
determination  to  perform  his 
duty  faithfully  and  fearlessly. 
An  Offer  of  Amnesty. — 
The  first  official  act  of  the  new 
Executive  was  in  keeping  with 
these  fair-spoken  utterances, 
and  with  the  policy  of  concilia- 
tion that  he  had  evidently  de- 
cided to  pursue.  Visiting  the 
Penitentiary,  he  conversed  with 
the  imprisoned  Apostle,  Loren- 
zo Snow,  and  others  held  there 
for  like  cause,  pleading  with 
them  in  an  earnest  manner,  and 
offering  amnesty  to  all  who 


GOVERNOR    WEST 


F 


would  promise  to  obey  the  anti-polygamy  laws  as  interpreted 
by  the  Federal  Courts.  That  special  class  of  prisoners  then 
numbered  forty-nine.  While  impressed  with  the  Governor's 
well-meant  offer,  they  informed  him  that  his  proposition  in- 
volved the  sacrifice  of  a  religious  conviction,  and  they  could 
not  conscientiously  give  the  required  promise.  Moreover, 
they  intimated  that  even  in  the  absence  of  conscientious  scru- 
ples it  would  be  exceedingly  difficult  to  do  as  he  desired,  owing 
to  the  many  and  ever  changing  interpretations  put  upon  those 
laws  by  the  aforesaid  courts. 

The  Snow  Case  at  Washington. — The  Governor  had  two 
interviews  with  the  Apostle,  and  between  them,  on  the  10th 
of  May,  came  a  decision  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN. 


439 


United  States,  temporarily  disposing  of  the  Snow  case.  In 
the  proceedings  that  went  before,  the  Government  had  been 
represented  by  Assistant  Attorney  General  William  A.  Maury, 
and  the  appellant  by  Franklin  S.  Richards,  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  George  Ticknor  Curtis,  of  Boston.  During  the  progress 
of  the  arguments  Mr.  Maury  was  asked  by  the  Court  what 
poly  garni  sts  ought  to  do  respecting  their  plural  wives.  In- 
stead of  answering  the  question,  he  became  excited  and  ex- 
claimed :  "It  would  have  been  infinitely  better  if  these  people, 
years  ago,  had  been  put  to  the  sword."  Mr.  Curtis  protested 

against  the  "atrocious  sugges- 

tion,"  and  Mr.  Richards  made 
effective  use  of  it  in  the  follow- 
ing splendid  passages  of  his 
final  address : 

"We  have  witnessed  today 
a  most  startling  illustration  of 
the  power  of  popular  clamor. 
Does  any  one  believe  that  the 
learned  counsel  for  the  Govern- 
ment could,  in  the  discussion  of 
any  other  subject,  so  far  forget 
the  dignity  due  this  honorable 
presence  as  to  suggest  that  'it 
would  have  been  better  had 
these  people  been  put  to  the 
sword  in  the  first  instance?' 
What  an  expression  to  fall 
from  the  lips  of  the  legal  repre- 
sentative of  the  greatest  gov- 
ernment on  earth,  with  refer- 
ence to  some  of  its  most  loyal 
citizens — and  uttered  too,  in 
this  temple  of  justice,  where 
reason  reigns,  and*  where  the 
clamor  of  the  multitude  must  not  enter.  Such  things  have 
been  spoken  before,  in  the  dark  ages  that  are  past  and  gone 
forever,  but  never  in  this  nineteenth  century  has  a  more  cruel 
and  inhuman  thing  than  this  been  said.  I  need  not  answer  it, 
because  your  honors  will  not  consider  it.  This  nation  needs 
no  more  chapters  written  in  blood  and  tears." 

"When  counsel  tells  us  that  'this  thing  must  be  stamped 
cut,'  what  does  he  mean?  Certainly  not  polygamy,  for  there 
is  no  such  charge  in  these  cases.  Nor  can  he  mean  living  in 
the  practice  of  polygamy,  for  the  records  in  these  cases  show 
conclusively  that  there  was  no  actual  cohabitation  with  more 
than  one  woman.  -There  remains  then,  simply  the  religious 


FRANKLIN    S.    RICHARDS 


440    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

belief  of  Mr.  Snow  and  his  wives  that  their  marriage  relations 
are  eternal,  and  it  must  be  that  belief  which  is  to  be  stamped 
out.  Can  it  be  possible  that  the  lessons  which  history  teaches 
upon  this  subject  have  been  lost  to  us?  Who  ever  heard  of 
a  man's  convictions  being  legislated  away,  or  his  belief  re- 
inoved  by  persecution  and  oppression? 

"In  conclusion  I  can  but  ask  your  honors  for  a  reversal  of 
the  judgments  in  these  cases,  and  for  a  just  and  humane  con- 
struction of  this  statute  in  its  application  to  them,  that  the 
people  who  are  affected  by  the  law  may  know  its  requirements 
and  be  able  to  avoid  its  penalties."  "I  now  submit  the  cases 
in  the  fervent  hope  that  you  will  fully  and  mercifully  answer 
the  question,  which  has  been  so  frequently  propounded  by  the 
Court  during  this  discussion,  'What  must  these  people  do?'' 

Dismissed  for  Want  of  Jurisdiction. — The  Supreme  Bench 
was  not  prepared  to  answer  the  question.  Instead,  the  Court, 
after  some  deliberation,  decided  that  it  had  no  jurisdiction  in 
the  case,  and  accordingly  dismissed  it.  In  order  to  be  con- 
sistent, it  recalled  its  mandate  in  the  Cannon  case,  and  dis- 
missed that  also  upon  the  same  grounds. 

Governor's  Proclamation  and  Report. — Governor  West, 
on  the  16th  of  July,  issued  a  proclamation  warning  the  "Mor- 
mons" and  air  who  intended  to  become  "Mormons"  against 
violating  the  anti-polygamy  laws.  Three  months  later  he 
sent  his  first  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  Therein 
he  gave  the  number  of  Utah  convictions  under  the  Edmunds 
Law  as  ninety-three — six  of  them  for  polygamy,  and  eighty- 
seven  for  unlawful  cohabitation.  Most  of  these  were  from 
Salt  Lake,  Weber,  Beaver,  and  Tooele  counties,  and  all  from 
eight  of  the  twenty-four  counties  of  the  Territory.  Only  seven 
persons  had  given  the  promise  to  obey.  The  report  made  ref- 
erence to  the  Penitentiary,  the  good  health  of  whose  inmates, 
"under  crowded  and  unfavorable  conditions,"  spoke  well  "for 
its  conduct  and  management;"  and  also  referred  to  the  Indus- 
trial Home,  an  institution  for  the  founding  of  which  the  previ- 
ous Congress  had  appropriated  the  sum  of  forty  thousand 
dollars.  There  was  no  armed  resistance  to  authority  in  Utah, 
but  much  bitterness  and  division  existed  between  "Mormons" 
and  "Gentiles."  There  being  no  organized  militia  in  the  Ter- 
ritory, the  Governor  recommended,  as  a  precautionary  meas- 
ure, that  troops  of  the  regular  army  be  made  available  to  the 
civil  authorities  in  the  event  of  a  violent  outbreak.  Certain 
reforms  in  the  United  States  Marshal's  Office  were  advised; 
all  fees  should  be  turned  into  the  Territorial  Treasury,  and  the 
Marshal  paid  a  fixed  salary  of  not  less  than  five  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  The  Marshal  and  his  deputies  ought  to  be  men 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  441 

of  the  best  character  and  qualities.  The  Governor  also  fav- 
ored further  anti-polygamy  legislation. 

The  Industrial  Home. — The  Industrial  Home,  mentioned 
in  the  Governor's  report,  owed  its  existence,  primarily,  to  the 
zealous  efforts  of  Mrs.  Angie  F.  Newman,  of  Lincoln,  Ne- 
braska, a  worthy,  well-intentioned  woman,  but  one  easily  im- 
posed upon  and  grossly  misinformed  respecting  affairs  in  Utah. 
This  lady,  when  she  originated  her  philanthropic  plan,  had  in 
view  the  shelter  and  employment  of  women  and  children  who, 
it  was  supposed,  would  desert  or  be  cast  off  by  their  husbands 
and  fathers,  in  consequence  of  the  anti-polygamy  crusade. 
But  the  "Home"  proved  a  failure.  It  was  a  needless  institu- 
tion, so  far  as  "Mormon"  wives  and  children  were  concerned. 
The  structure,  which  was  erected  on  Fifth  East  Street,  Salt 
Lake  City,  after  its  uselessness  as  a  place  of  refuge  had  been 
demonstrated,  was  utilized  for  a  time  as  an  office  building  by 
the  Utah  Commission,  and  subsequently  turned  into  a  hotel.* 

The  Loyal  League. — Toward  the  close  of  1886  there  arose 
in  Utah  an  organization  known  as  "The  Loyal  League,"  hav- 
ing its  headquarters  at  Salt  Lake  City,  with  branches  in  vari- 
ous towns  and  settlements.  It  succeeded  "The  Gentile  League 
of  Utah,"  which  had  passed  out  of  existence.  The  objects  of 
the  new  League,  as  set  forth  in  its  constitution,  were  "to  com- 
bine the  loyal  people  of  Utah,  male  and  female,  irrespective  of 
politics,  in  opposition  to  the  political  rule  and  law-defying 
practices  of  the  so-called  Mormon  Church ;  to  oppose  the  ad- 
mission of  Utah  into  the  Union  until  she  has  the  substance  as 
well  as  the  form  of  republican  government,"  and  "to  raise 
money  to  maintain  agents  in  Washington  or  elsewhere  to  labor 
for  these  ends."  The  League  had  its  greatest  popularity  in 
the  mining  camps,  where,  however,  the  practical  working  of  its 
policy  had  the  effect  of  alienating  some  adherents  of  the 

*The  promoters  of  "The  Industrial  Christian  Home  of  Utah"  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  prevent  the  threatened  collapse  of  that  superfluous 
institution.  Congress  was  asked  for  a  supplemental  appropriation  of 
eighty  thousand  dollars,  and  in  order  to  induce  favorable  action  upon 
the  petition,  certain  statements  were  made  at  Washington  and  pub- 
lished in  the  Congressional  Record  under  date  of  October  3,  1888. 
To  show  the  undesirability  of  the  Utah  Penitentiary  as  a  place  of 
detention  for  women,  and  incidentally  the  need  of  the  "Home,"  it  was 
reported,  among  other  things,  that  in  one  of  the  cells  of  the  Peniten- 
tiary "were  two  girls,  one  fourteen  and  one  sixteen,  who  were  mar- 
ried to  their  own  father,  both  with  babes."  "This  is  wholly  incorrect," 
said  Marshal  Dyer  in  a  letter  used  by  Delegate  Caine,  while  refuting 
the  slanderous  allegation  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
"and  I  cannot  understand  how  anybody  could  have  been  so  misled. 
Somebody  must  have  made  malicious  misrepresentations  to  Mrs.  New- 
man on  this  subject,  as  we  have  never  had  any  girls  of  this  age  con- 
fined in  the  Penitentiary  since  I  have  been  Marshal." 


442    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Liberal  Party.  One  of  these  was  Jesse  Knight,  the  present- 
day  mining  magnate,  who  became  from  that  time  a  staunch 
supporter  of  the  People's  Party. 

League  Influence  at  Washington. — The  Loyal  League 
sent  as  its  agents  to  the  seat  of  Government  Charles  W.  Ben- 
nett and  Robert  N.  Baskin,  both 
prominent  members  of  the 
Utah  Bar.  They  found  a  wil- 
ling co-worker  in  Miss  Kate 
Field,  whose  sensational  lec- 
ture, "The  Mormon  Monster," 
was  delivered  there  about  the 
time  of  the  opening  of  Con- 
gress. Another  female  ally  of 
the  League's  agents  was  Caro- 
line Owen  Miles,  who  had  left 
Utah  several  years  before  and 
secured  a  clerkship  in  one  of 
the  Departments  at  Washing- 
ton. 

A  Good  Fighting  Chance. 

—In  dismissing  the  Snow  and 
Cannon  cases,  the  Court  of 
Last  Resort  had  blocked  the 

JESSE  KNIGHT  way  toward  a  final  settlement 

of  the  momentous  issues  that  had  arisen  in  connection  there- 
with. It  had  also  tied  this  class  of  defendants  hand  and  foot 
and  delivered  them  over  to  the  Utah  courts,  from  whose  rul- 
ings, however  severe,  there  now  seemed  no  chance  of  appeal. 
But  Lorenzo  Snow  had  an  able  attorney  and  a  faithful  friend 
in  Franklin  S.  Richards,  the  leading  counsel  for  the  "Mormon" 
people  in  most  of  the  important  cases  arising  in  Utah  during 
that  period.  Mr.  Richards  was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to  find 
a  way  out  of  the  difficulties  encompassing  his  distressed  co- 
religionists. Eventually  his  resourceful  mind  hit  upon  a  plan 
which  he  thought  afforded  "a  good  fighting  chance."  When 
the  Snow  case  was  taken  to  Washington,  the  question  mostly 
pressed  was  not  "segregation,"  but  "constructive  cohabita- 
tion,"  involving  the  identity  of  the  legal  wife  and  the  defend- 
ant's assumed  intimacy  with  her.  Mr.  Richards  now  de- 
cided to  isolate  the  "segregation'  issue,  make  it  the  basis  of 
action,  and  institute  proceedings  in  behalf  of  his  client  on  the 
ground  of  unlawful  detention.  Such  a  plea,  however,  could 
only  be  made  to  apply  to  that  portion  of  the  Apostle's  sentence 
of  imprisonment  over  and  above  the  first  six  months,  the 
legal  term  for  unlawful  cohabitation.  The  attorney  waited, 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  443 

therefore,  for  the  six  months  to  expire,  before  applying  for  the 
necessary  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 

•  Judge  Zane  denied  the  writ,  and  an  appeal  was  then  taken 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  That  tribunal 
heard  the  case  in  January,  1887;  Richards  and  Curtis  appear- 
ing for  the  appellant,  and  Mr.  Maury  for  the  Government. 
The  Assistant  Attorney  General  contended  that  the  three 
judgments  pronounced  upon  Lorenzo  Snow  were  for  three 
distinct  offenses,  and  that  he  had  been  fined  and  imprisoned 
accordingly.  This  being  the  case,  the  plea  of  unlawful  deten- 
tion did  not  apply.  In  answer  to  that  argument,  it  was  claimed 
that  three  separate  sentences  had  been  imposed  for  one  of- 
fense, unlawful  cohabitation,  maintained  continuously  from 
-he  first  of  January,  1883,  to  the  last  of  December,  1885.  There 
was  no  evidence  that  it  had  been  interrupted  in  any  manner 
whatever  between  the  dates  given,  and  the  prosecution  could 
rot  sit  idly  by  for  years,  and  then  swoop  down  upon  the  un- 
suspecting citizen,  piling  on  indictments  by  a  process  which, 
if  tolerated,  could  be  made  to  place  him  in  prison  for  life  and 
absorb  a  fabulous  sum  in  fines.  There  must  be  an  interruption 
in  the  relationship  of  cohabitation,  as  construed  by  the  courts, 
before  two  or  more  indictments  could  be  found  at  one  time 
for  a  past  offense.  This  act,  being  continuous,  was  but  one 
offense,  and  the  judgments  as  to  the  second  and  third  penal- 
ties were  therefore  void.* 

Segregation  Shattered. — The  Court  was  now  ready  to 
face  the  issue  and  right  the  wrong.  It  reached  a  decision  on 
the  7th  of  February.  Assuming  jurisdiction  of  the  case,  it 
held  that  the  cohabitation  for  which  the  appellant  had  been 
convicted  was  one  continuous  offense,  extending  over  the 
entire  period  covered  by  the  three  indictments.  This  ruling 
shattered  the  doctrine  of  segregation,  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
practice.  Lorenzo  Snow,  an  order  for  whose  release  was  tele- 
graphed from  Washington,  left  the  Penitentiary  soon  after  the 
decision  was  rendered.  Six  others  imprisoned  under  the  segre- 
gating process  likewise  regained  their  liberty. 

*A  number  of  English  and  American  cases  were  cited,  bearing 
\vith  singular  analogy  upon  the  case  under  consideration.  In  one  it 
had  been  held  that  the  felonious  taking  of  coal  from  a  mine,  day  after 
day,  for  a  period  covering  four  years,  was  but  a  single  offense,  for 
the  reason  that  there  had  been  no  cessation,  and  the  taking  was  in  all 
respects  continuous.  In  another  case  a  man  had.  attached  a  fraudulent 
pipe  to  a  gas  main,  from  which,  for  a  protracted  period,  gas  had  been 
drawn  during  the  day  and  turned  off  at  night,  and  yet  it  was  held 
to  be  only  one  offense.  The  Judge,  in  one  instance  had  reasoned,  that 
it  would  be  as  just  to  hold  that  every  stitch  taken  by  a  tailor  on  the 
Lord's  day  constituted  a  new  and  distinct  offense  in  Sabbath-breaking, 
as  to  hold  that  any  act  continuous  in  its  nature  could  be  so  divided  and 
multiplied. 


444    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

"Ultra"  Demands. — It  has  already  been  shown  that  the 
surrender  of  plural  marriage  was  not  the  only  concession  re- 
quired from  the  Latter-day  Saints.  The  abandonment  of 
their  peculiar  marriage  system  was  a  mere  bagatelle  in  com- 
parison with  other  issues  of  the  local  controversy.  "We  care 
nothing  for  your  polygamy,"  many  "Gentiles"  were  wont  to 
say  in  private  to  their  "Mormon"  neighbors.  "It's  a  good  war 
cry,  and  serves  to  enlist  sympathy  for  our  cause ;  but  what 
we  most  object  to  is  your  unity,  your  political  and  commer- 
cial solidarity,  your  obedience  to  spiritual  leaders  in  temporal 
affairs.  We  want  you  to  throw  off  the  yoke  and  be  free,  as 
we  are."  The  fact  that  they  were  dominated  by  rings,  cliques, 
and  combinations  of  their  own,  did  not  seem  to  enter  into  their 
philosophy. 

"A  Place  in  the  Sun." — What  these  agitators  really  want- 
ed was  the  passing  of  the  reins  of  power  from  the  hands  of  the 
priest  to  those  of  the  politician.  It  was  all  right  to  be  "bossed" 
politically,  but  all  wrong  to  be  influenced  ecclesiastically — in 
temporal  matters.  The  Liberal  Party,  still  in  the  minority, 
was  tired  of  looking  on.  It  longed  to  experience  the  sensation 
of  office-holding.  It  wanted  "a  place  in  the  sun" — that  was 
the  core  of  the  question.  All  the  rest — allowing  for  the  sin- 
cerity of  some  who  really  thought  "Mormonism"  a  moral 
blight  and  a  menace  to  free  institutions — was  mere  fustian. 

The  agitation  went  on,  -its  radical  promoters  charging 
murder,  priestcraft,  tyranny  and  treason.  The  "Mormons" 
were  an  ignorant  and  immoral  community,  steeped  in  dis- 
loyalty, wallowing  in  corruption  and  crime.  Rebellion  was 
rampant  in  Utah,  and  the  "Gentiles"  were  in  constant  fear, 
trembling  for  their  lives  and  the  safety  of  their  property.  All 
of  which  was  the  veriest  rubbish,  and  the  "Gentiles"  knew  it 
as  well  as  the  "Mormons." 

A  Manifest  Absurdity. — Persons  influenced  by  these 
stories  rarely  stopped  to  consider  their  manifest  absurdity. 
Such  accusations  virtually  contradicted  themselves.  Had 
they  been  well  founded,  their  authors  would  have  been  the  first 
to  feel  the  rigors  of  "Mormon'  resentment  and  retaliation.  That 
"Gentile"  editor  was  right  who  wrote  in  after  years  concerning 
these  people:  "Their  patience  under  the  consistent  hurling  of 
missiles  against  them  has  been  one  of  the  matchless  testi- 
monies to  the  good  temper,  the  moderation,  the  self-control  of 
Utah's  most  worthy  citizens.  If  they  had  been  the  sort  of 
people  described  *  *  *  they  would  have  spoken  with  vio- 
lence their  protest  against  the  slanders  that  pictured  them  as 
criminals  by  inheritance  and  traitors  by  choice."* 


*The  Herald-Republican,  Salt  Lake  City,  October  31,  1909. 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  445 

Such  charges  as  these  had  led  to  the  enactment  of  the 
Edmunds  Law;  and  their  persistent  reiteration,  with  the  ad- 
ditional statement  that  this  law  had  proved  inadequate  for 
the  correction  of  the  evil,  induced  Congress  to  supplement  it 
with  a  statute  even  more  severe. 

The  Edmunds-Tucker  Law. — As  early  as  December,  1882, 
Senator  Edmunds  had  introduced  into  Congress  a  bill  to  amend 
the  law  bearing  his  name.  This  bill,  which  died  almost  at  its 
birth,  but  experienced  repeated  resurrections,  was  finally  en- 
acted as  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Law,  so  named  for  its  principal 
promoters,  Senator  George  F.  Edmunds,  of  Vermont,  and 
Representative  John  Randolph  Tucker,  of  Virginia.  It  took 
five  years  to  produce  this  statute;  not  because  those  friendly 
to  it  were  idle  or  indifferent  the  while,  but  owing  to  a  desire 
on  the  part  of  many  Congressmen,  some  of  whom  believed  the 
Edmunds  Law  had  strained  the  Constitution,  to  allow  the 
medicine  already  administered  to  do  its  work,  before  foisting 
upon  the  over-dosed  patient  another  prescription. 

The  new  law  provided  that  in  prosecutions  for  poly- 
gamy or  unlawful  cohabitation,  the  lawful  husband  or  wife 
might  testify  as  a  witness.  It  had  been  proposed  to  compel 
them  to  testify,  but  an  amendment  prevailed  modifying  that 
section. 

It  was  also  provided  that  attachments  might  issue,  with- 
out previous  subpoena,  compelling  the  immediate  attendance 
of  witnesses. 

All  marriages  were  to  be  of  public  record,  containing  the 
names  of  the  contracting  parties,  the  nature  of  the  ceremony, 
and  the  name  of  the  officer,  priest,  or  person  performing  the 
same. 

Adultery  and  other  sexual  offenses  were  made  punishable, 
and  local  laws  providing  that  prosecutions  for  adultery  could 
be  commenced  only  upon  the  complaint  of  husband  or  wife, 
were  annulled. 

The  probate  judges  in  Utah  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Attorney-General  to  institute 
and  prosecute  proceedings  to  forfeit  and  escheat  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government  property  held  in  violation  of  the  Anti-polyg- 
amy Law  of  1862  and  of  Section  1890  of  the  Revised  Statutes 
of  the  United  States;  and  all  such  property  was  to  be  dis- 
posed of  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  the  common  schools  of  Utah  or  of  any  other  Terri- 
tory in  which  it  might  be  found.  Places  of  worship  and  par- 
sonages, with  their  appurtenant  grounds,  also  cemeteries,  were 
exempted  from  forfeiture;  but  all  Church  property  in  real 
estate  was  to  be  held  by  trustees  nominated  by  their  respec- 


446    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

tive  sects,  societies,  or  congregations,  and  appointed  by  courts 
exercising  probate  powers. 

The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  was  dis- 
incorporated, and  the  Attorney-General  was  empowered  and 
directed  to  cause  such  proceedings  to  be  taken  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Utah  as  should  be  proper  and  necessary  to  wind  up 
the  affairs  of  the  late  corporation. 

The  Perpetual  Emigrating  Fund  Company  was  dissolved, 
its  property  being  escheated  to  the  Govenment  for  the  benefit 
of  the  common  schools  in  Utah. 

The  office  of  Territorial  Superintendent  of  District  Schools 
was  abolished,  and  the  duties  of  that  officer  were  placed  upon 
a  Commissioner  of  Schools,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Utah.  All  sectarian  instruction  in  the  common 
schools  was  forbidden. 

Female  suffrage  was  abolished  in  Utah;  likewise  the  Nau- 
voo  Legion  and  the  local  militia  laws. 

The  Territory  was  to  be  re-districted,  and  the  Utah  Com- 
mission continued  in  office. 

As  a  condition  precedent  to  voting,  holding  office,  or 
serving  on  juries  in  this  Territory,  an  oath,  in  addition  to  the 
usual  obligation,  was  required  of  every  male  person,  pledging 
obedience  to  the  anti-polygamy  laws,  and  promising  not  to 
teach,  aid,  or  advise  anything  contrary  thereto. 

All  persons  convicted  of  polygamy  or  unlawful  cohabita- 
tion were  disfranchised,  and  illegitimate  children,  with  cer- 
tain exceptions,  disinherited. 

There  were  other  provisions,  but  they  were  of  minor  im- 
portance. One  of  them  abolished  the  secret  ballot,  which  had 
already  been  done  away  with  by  the  Utah  Legislature. 

In  the  Senate. — During  the  debate  upon  the  bill  out  of 
which  grew  this  Act  of  Congress,  Senator  Brown,  of  Georgia, 
declared  that  so  far  as  the  execution  of  the  law  was  concerned, 
there  was  no  need  of  this  additional  legislation.  As  matters 
then  stood  (January,  1886),  it  was  only  necessary  to  make  out 
a  prima  facie  case,  and  a  very  light  one,  in  order  to  convict  a 
"Mormon"  polygamist.  Jurors,  before  being  accepted  in  the 
courts,  were  required  to  swear  that  they  did  not  believe  polyg- 
amy right.  This  alone  would  show  that  they  were  not  im- 
partial, but  they  were  even  asked  by  the  United  States  At- 
torney if  they  were  "in  sympathy  with  the  prosecution." 

Senator  Edmunds  was  greatly  shocked  by  this  statement 
of  the  Senator  from  Georgia.  He  did  not  believe  that  a  juror 
in  Utah  had  ever  been  asked  by  a  District  Attorney  if  he  was 
''in  sympathy  with  the  prosecution."  The  Vermont  statesman, 
if  his  incredulity  was  sincere,  evidently  had  not  read  the  Dis- 
trict Court  proceedings  in  the  case  of  Angus  M.  Cannon. 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  447 

Another  strong  opponent  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Bill  was 
Senator  Vest,  of  Missouri.  "As  a  matter  of  course,"  said  he, 
"this  bill  will  become  a  law,  but  I  cannot  vote  for  it.  I  am  well 
aware  what  the  public  sentiment  of  the  country  is,  but  that 
makes  no  sort  of  impression  on  me,  with  my  convictions  as  a 
legislator;  nor  will  any  amount  of  criticism  on  my  action.  I 
cannot  vote  for  this  bill  because  in  my  judgment  it  violates 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  *  *  *  It  is  naked,  simple,  bold  confiscation,  and 
nothing1  else.  The  whole  spirit  of  this  test-oath 

legislation  is  wrong;  it  is  contrary  to  the  principles  and  spirit 
of  our  Republican  institutions;  and  whenever  the  time  comes 
in  the  Territories  or  States  of  this  Union  that  test  oaths  are 
necessary  to  preserve  the  public  institutions,  then  Republi- 
canism is  at  an  end." 

To  Senator  Edmunds,  who  declared  that  the  Constitu- 
tion itself  incorporated  test  oaths,  Senator  Vest  replied :  "The 
President  of  the  United  States  and  each  member  of  Congress 
swears  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  but 
who  ever  heard  before  that  that  was  a  test  oath?"  "A  test  oath 
is  one  that  tests  the  conscience  as  to  a  particular  act  or  belief." 

Senator  Teller,  of  Colorado,  also  spoke  against  the  pend- 
ing measure,  and  incidentally  paid  a  fine  tribute  to  the  pa- 
tience and  self-control  of  the  people  of  Utah. 

Before  the  Judiciary  Committee.— During  April  and  May 
of  that  year  a  number  of  Utah  men  appeared  before  the  Ju- 
diciary Committee  of  the  House,  speaking  for  or  against  the 
measure  then  under  consideration  by  Congress.  One  of  these, 
Mr.  F.  S.  Richards,  referring  to  a  certain  feature  of  the  pro- 
posed enactment,  showed  that  already  in  Utah  legal  wives  had 
been  required  to  testify  against  their  husbands,  and  that  at- 
tachments had  been  issued  for  witnesses  without  previous  sub- 
poena; acts  which  Congress  was  now  called  upon  to  legalize. 

Mr.  Gibson,  a  Washington  attorney,  who  was  assisting 
Delegate  Caine  in  his  fight  upon  the  bill,  expressed  the  hope 
that  Congress  would  make  the  provisions  against  adultery  and 
fornication  broad  enough  to  cover  everybody.  Whereupon 
Representative  Eden,  a  member  of  the  Committee,  inquired : 
"Does  not  Section  Nineteen  apply  to  everybody?"  Gibson  re- 
sponded :  "You  would  think  an  act  of  Congress  that  says  'any 
male  person  cohabiting  with  more  than  one  woman'  would 
apply  to  everybody,  wouldn't  you?  But  it  has  not  been  made 
to  so  apply.  You  know  Congress  enacts  laws,  and  the  courts 
construe  them." 

Judge  Baskin,  the  Loyal  League  agent,  wanted  laws  en- 
acted that  would  strike  at  the  foundation  of  the  "Mormon" 
theocratic  system.  He  was  answered  by  Mr.  Boutwell,  an- 


448    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

other  Washington  lawyer,  who  asked  if  Congress  was  pre- 
pared to  strike  down  the  Jewish  organization  or  the  Catholic 
Church,  because  they  were  "theocratic  systems." 

Honorable  Jeff  Chandler  also  opposed  the  bill,  maintain- 
ing that  the  Government  had  no  right  to  disestablish  a  church, 
or  to  confiscate  the  property  of  a  corporation  whose  charter 
was  repealed. 

Judge  Baskin  contended  that  all  the  arguments  advanced 
by  the  other  side  fell  to  the  ground  in  the  presence  of  the 
fact  that  the  pending  bill  was  designed  to  meet  a  peculiar  state 
of  affairs,  which  warranted  unusual  measures.  In  other  words, 
"the  end  justified  the  means." 

Neither  Approved  nor  Vetoed. — The  Edmunds-Tucker 
Bill,  having  passed  through  Congress,  was  sent  to. the  Presi- 
dent. He  neither  approved  nor  vetoed  it,  and  ten  days  later, 
March  3,  1887,  it  became  a  law  without  his  signature.  Cleve- 
land did  not  favor  the  measure,  but  feared  that  if  he  vetoed 
it  a  worse  one  would  follow.  "Tell  your  people,"  said  he  to 
Delegate  Caine,  "that  the  law  shall  not  be  harshly  admin- 
istered. While  it  is  my  duty  to  see  it  enforced,  I  promise  that 
it  shall  be  executed  impartially  and  in  the  spirit  of  justice  and 
humanity." 

Changes  in  the  Utah  Commission. — In  the  personnel  of 
the  Utah  Commission,  several  changes  had  taken  place  since 
.the  first  organization.  Mr.  Carlton  was  now  chairman,  Gov- 
ernor Ramsey  having  resigned ;  and  the  latter  had  been  suc- 
ceeded as  a  member  by  General  John  A.  McClernand,  of  Il- 
linois. A.  B.  Williams,  of  Arkansas,  had  the  place  formerly 
held  by  James  R.  Pettigrew,  deceased;  and  Arthur  L.  Thomas, 
of  Utah,  had  succeeded  A.  S.  Paddock,  resigned.  William  C. 
Hall,  a  Salt  Lake  lawyer,  was  now  Secretary  of  the  Territory 
and  ex-officio  Secretary  of  the  Board. 

The  Brigham  City  Election. — The  Commisisoners  took 
early  steps' to  prepare  for  the  local  elections  under  the  new 
statute.  The  first  one  was  held  at  Brigham  City  on  the  7th 
of  March.  Some  hope  had  been  entertained  by  the  Liberals 
that  their  political  opponents,  bearing  in  mind  the  attitude  of 
those  who  had  refused  in  court  to  promise  obedience,  would  de- 
cline to  take  the  test  oath,  and  so  fail  to  register.  But  the  hope 
was  vain.  The  great  majority  of  the  "Mormon"  men  were  mon- 
ogamous in  practice,  standing  upon  quite  another  plane  to 
that  occupied  by  their  polygamous  brethren.  This  being  the 
case,  they  saw  no  reason  why  they  should  not  exercise  their 
rights  as  citizens.  A  few  "Mormons"  and  some  "Gentiles"  re- 
fused to  be  sworn,  but  eventually  the  whole  male  population 
eligible  for  enrollment  registered.  The  women,  having  been 
disfranchised,  made  no  effort  to  have  their  names  placed  upon 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  449 

the  registration  books.     The  election  result  at  Brigham  was 
the  usual  victory  for  the  People's  Party. 

The  Territory  Redistricted. — During  May  the  Utah  Com- 
mission, with  the  Governor  and  the  Secretary,  redistricted  the 
Territory,  creating  twenty-four  Representative  and  twelve 
Council  districts.  The  August  elections  returned  five  Liberals 
to  the  Legislature.  A  large  majority  of  the  TerritorJ&county 
and  precinct  officers-elect  were  "Mormons,"  and  of  course 
monogamists. 

Death  of  President  Taylor. — Monday,  July  25th,  1887,  wit- 
nessed the  passing  of  President  John  Taylor,  the  head  of  the 
"Mormon"  Church,  whose  death  occurred  at  the  home  of 
Thomas  F.  Roueche,  in  Kaysville,  Davis  County,  Utah.  The 
funeral  services  were  held  in  the  Tabernacle  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
on  Friday  the  29th,  the  interment  being  in  the  City  Cemetery. 
President  Taylor  died  in  exile  and  was  looked  upon  by  the 
Latter-day  Saints  as  a  martyr  to  his  religion. 

Proceedings  in  Escheatment. — Proceedings  now  began 
for  the  confiscation  of  the  "Mormon"  Church  property,  pur- 
suant to  the  provisions  of  the  recent  Act  of  Congress.  For  this 
purpose,  on  the  30th  of  July,  at  the  instance  of  the  United 
States  Attorney-General,  two  suits  were  planted  in  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Utah.  The  first  was  entitled :  "The  United 
States  of  America,  plaintiff,  versus  the  late  Corporation  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  John  Taylor,  late 
Trustee-in-Trust,  and  Wilford  Woodruff,  Lorenzo  Snow, 
Erastus  Snow,  Franklin  D.  Richards,  Brigham  Young,  Moses 
Thatcher,  Francis  M.  Lyman,  John  Henry  Smith,  George  Teas- 
dale,  Heber  J.  Grant,  and  John  W.  Taylor,  late  assistant  trus- 
tees, defendants,"  The  title  of  the  second  suit  was,  "The 
United  States  of  America,  plaintiff,  versus  The  Perpetual 
Emigrating  Fund  Company,  Albert  Carrington,  F.  D.  Rich- 
ards, F.  M.  Lyman,  H.  S.  Eldredge,  Joseph  F.  Smith,  Angus 
M.  Cannon,  Moses  Thatcher,  John  R.  Winder,  Henry  Din- 
woodey,  Robert  T.  Burton,  A.  O.  Smoot,  and  H.  B.  Clawson, 
defendants." 

The  prosecution  was  conducted  by  United  States  Attorney 
George  S.  Peters,  who  had  succeeded  Mr.  Dickson,  the  latter 
having  been  removed  in  April.  Mr.  Peters  was  from  Ohio. 
He  was  assisted  by  William  J.  Clarke,  and  H.  W.  Hobson,  the 
latter  U.  S.  Attorney  for  Colorado.  The  defense  was  rep- 
resented by  Franklin  S.  Richards  and  Le  Grande  Young,  of 
Salt  Lake  City;  James  O.  Broadhead,  of  St.  Louis;  and  Joseph 
E.  McDonald,  of  Indianapolis.  Colonel  Broadhead  and  Ex- 
U.  S.  Senator  McDonald  were  among  the  foremost  lawyers  of 
America.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Utah  then  consisted  of  Chief 
Justice  Zane,  and  Associate  Justices  Henderson  and  Boreman. 

28 


450    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Statement  of  Facts. — Arguments  in  the  confiscation  suits 
began  on  the  17th  of  October.  The  first  question  discussed 
was  the  appointment  of  a  Receiver,  to  take  charge  of  the 
Church  property  during  this  litigation.  A  statement  of  facts 
showed  that  the  Church,  by  three  trustees,  William  B.  Preston, 
Robert  T.  Burton,  and  John  R.  Winder  (appointed  by  the  Pro- 
bate Court  of  Salt  Lake  County,  pursuant  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Edmunds-Tucker  Law),  held  three  pieces  of  real  estate, 
namely,  the  Temple  Block,  the  Tithing  House  and  grounds, 
and  the  premises  containing  the  Gardo  House  and  the  His- 
torian's Office.  It  was  also  shown  that  personal  property, 
valued  at  $268,982.39^,  had  been  held  by  the  late  President 
Taylor,  in  trust  for  the  Latter-day  Saints  in  the  various  Stakes 
of  Zion,  but  had  been  conveyed  to  them  in  their  corporate  ca- 
pacity, as  Church  Associations  of  those  Stakes,  about  two 
months  before  the  appointment  of  the  three  Trustees. 

Broadhead's  Brilliant  Plea. — Colonel  Broadhead,  in  a 
masterly  plea,  attacked  the  constitutionality  of  the  Edmunds- 
Tucker  Law,  denying  the  right  of  Congress  to  dissolve  a 
church  corporation  and  confiscate  its  property.  He  also  op- 
posed the  appointment  of  a  Receiver.  The  property  was  in 
snfe  hands,  and  the  Court  was  not  authorized  to  remove  it. 
Congress  could  not  rightfully  deprive  a  person  of  property 
without  due  process  of  law.  A  mob  might  take  a  man  and  hang 
him,  but  that  was  not  due  process  of  law ;  it  was  the  power 
exercised  by  the  grizzly  bear  in  the  mountains,  when  it  seized 
it.-  prey.  The  defendants  claimed  the  protection  of  the  Consti- 
tution, to  stop  the  spoliation  of  their  property  by  the  oppres- 
sive and  arbitrary  Act  of  Congress. 

Hobson  for  the  Government. — Mr.  Hobson,  in  the  course  of 
an  able  reply,  contended  that  the  Court  was  vested  with  abso- 
lute right  to  administer  on  the  Church  property  under  the  Act 
of  Congress.  What  were  called  the  "vested  rights"  of  the 
Church  were  only  "squatter  rights."  The  escheated  property 
was  liable  to  be  destroyed,  and  the  appointment  of  a  Receiver 
was  therefore  proper  and  necessary. 

McDonald's  Argument. — Ex-Senator  McDonald  dis- 
puted the  proposition  that  the  power  of  Congress  was  abso- 
lute. The  act  incorporating  the  Church  was  a  charter,  and 
had  become  a  vested  right.  The  decree  of  dissolution  was  a 
judicial  act,  such  as  Congress,  a  legislative  body,  had  no  right 
to  perform.  Of  the  three  pieces  of  real  property  owned  by  the 
Church,  two,  the  Temple  Block  and  the  Tithing  House 
grounds,  had  been  occupied  long  before  1862,  while  the  Gardo 
Mouse  and  the  Historian's  Office  grounds,  acquired  since,  were 
a  parsonage,  and  as  such  legally  exempt  from  forfeiture.  All 
this  property  was  in  the  hands  of  Trustees  appointed  under  the 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN. 


451 


provisions  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Law.  The  personal  prop- 
erty distributed  to  the  Stakes  did  not  belong  to  the  Church, 
but  had  been  held  in  trust.  If  a  Receiver  could  be  appointed  to 
take  into  custody  property  so  held,  there  was  no  right  of  an 
American  citizen  that  was  not  subject  to  invasion. 

Reply  of  Attorney  Peters. — United  States  Attorney  Peters 
considered  the  present  proceeding  one  to  administer  upon  the 
estate  of  a  dissolved  corporation.  He  did  not  think  the  ques- 
tion of  the  validity  of  the  law  could  properly  come  up  at  this 
time.  The  Church  had  no  vested  right  to  the  real  estate,  and 
the  transfer  of  the  personal  property  was  fradulent.  There  was 
a  disposition  to  scatter  the  property,  and  a  Receiver  should  be 
appointed  to  take  charge  of  it. 

The  Plaintiff  the  Receiver.— The  Court,  on  the  5th  of 
November,  unanimously  granted  the  motion  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Receiver.  The 
person  chosen  for  this  im- 
portant position  was  United 
States  Marshal  Dyer.  The 
selection,  while  agreeable  to 
counsel  on  both  sides,  was 
exceedingly  distasteful  to 
Judge  Zane,  who  dissented 
from  the  majority  of  the 
Court  in  making  the  appoint- 
ment. His  objection  har- 


monized with  a  critical  view 
expressed  by  The  New  York 
Sun,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Court,  in  selecting  the 
United  States  Marshal,  had 
virtually  made  the  plaintiff 
the  receiver.  Dyer's  bond 
was  fixed  at  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  He  was  in- 
structed to  take  possession  of 
the  Church  property,  real 
and  personal,  and  manage 
and  control  it.  The  defend- 
ants were  ordered  to  deliver 

to   him   all   assets,   property,  and  effects  of  every  description, 
belonging  to  the  late  corporation. 

Church  Property  Seized. — The  first  piece  of  property 
seized  under  this  order  of  the  Court  was  the  Tithing  Office, 
which  was  turned  over  on  demand  by  John  R.  Winder,  one.  of 
the  Presiding  Bishopric.  An  officer  was  placed  in  charge,  with 
the  understanding  that  business  would  continue  as  usual 


BISHOP   WINDER. 


452    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


without  interruption,  until  further  notice.  Next,  the  Gardo 
House  and  the  Historian's  Office  were  taken,  and  even  the 
Temple  Block  was  demanded.  The  Church  was  required  to 
pay  for  the  use  of  the  Tithing  Office  and  Historian's  Office,  a 
yearly  rental  of  $2400;  and  for  the  Gardo  House,  $450  a 
month ;  also  a  nominal  rental  for  the  use  of  Temple  Block. 

The  property  of  the  Perpetual  Emigrating  Fund  Com- 
pany likewise  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Receiver.  It 
amounted  to  about  half  a  million  dollars,  but  was  mostly  in 

promissory  notes,  uncol- 
lectable  and  of  no  value. 
Later  the  President's  office 
was  seized;  the  clerks  being 
dismissed,  and  two  deputy 
marshals  put  in  charge. 
These  summary  proceedings 
followed  a  refusal  to  turn 
over  to  the  Receiver's  attor- 
ney, P.  L.  Williams,  certain 
books  which  one  of  the 
clerks,  David  McKenzie, 
claimed  did  not  belong  to  the- 
Church  corporation.  The 
books  were  carried  off,  and 
other  seizures  made.  Work 
upon  the  uncompleted  Salt 
Lake  Temple  ceased,  all  the 
laborers  being  discharged. 

Trustees  Made  Defend- 
ants.— William  B.  Preston. 
Robert  T.  Burton,  and  John 
R.  Winder,  the  Presiding 
Bishopric  of  the  Church,  and 
now  trustees  of  its  property, 

were  made  parties  to  the  main  suit,  and  a  number  of  smaller 
suits  were  instituted  by  the  Receiver  against  various  persons 
holding  property  that  had  belonged  to  the  Church.  E.  T. 
Sprague  was  appointed  Examiner,  to  take  testimony  in  these 
cases.  Subsequently,  in  order  to  stop  litigation  over  minor 
issues  and  expedite  the  settlement  of  the  entire  question,  it 
was  agreed  that  the  smaller  suits  should  be  dismissed,  and  the 
properties  in  dispute  turned  over  to  the  Receiver,  pending  final 
adjudication. 

Estimated  Values. — In  July  1887  it  was  estimated  that 
property  valued  at  about  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars,  ex- 
clusive of  Temple  Block,  upon  which  no  valuation  was  placed, 
had  been  seized  under  the  order  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This 


BISHOP  PRESTON. 


THE  DARK  BEFORE  THE  DAWN.  453 

property,  in  addition  to  the  real  estate  already  described,  con- 
sisted of  farms,  coal  mines,  cattle,  sheep,  gas  stock  and  divi- 
dends, Deseret  Telegraph  stock,  and  notes  signed  by  various 
persons  for  stock  in  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre.  At  the  conclusion 
of  arrangements  Receiver  Dyer  and  U.  S.  Attorney  Peters  set 
out  for  Washington,  to  confer  with  leading  national  author- 
ities, and  have  the  agreement  for  the  temporary  surrender  of 
the  property  ratified  by  the  Attorney  General. 


XXXI. 
RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 

1887-1889. 

Pardoned  by  the  President. — During  the  year  1887  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  pardoned  several  of  the  imprisoned  polyga- 
mists,  including  Joseph  H.  Evans,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  a  man 
nearly  seventy  years  of  age.  Concerning  this  object  of  his 
clemency,  the  President  said :  "I  am  determined  that  the  hard- 
ship of  his  case  shall  not  be  cited  to  show  that  the  Government 
is  inclined  to  be  vindictive  in  its  attempts  to  extirpate  the 
practice  of  polygamy."  Another  of  the  pardoned  was  Rudger 
Clawson,  whose  devoted  mother  visited  Washington  and  made 
a  personal  appeal  to  the  President  in  her  son's  behalf.  Charles 
Livingston,  former  Street  Supervisor  at  the  Utah  capital,  re- 
ceived amnesty  upon  the  request  of  some  of  his  non-" Mormon" 
friends;  Mr.  Isadore  Morris,  a  Hebrew  merchant,  taking  the 
initiative.  The  editor  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune  was  among 
those  who  signed  the  petition  for  a  pardon  in  this  case. 

Better  Days  at  Hand. — From  that  time  forward  it  was 
evident  that  a  more  moderate  policy  would  prevail.  Through 
rifts  in  the  still  threatening  cloud,  glimpses  of  clear  sky  were 
visible.  Changes  were  at  hand  betokening  a  happier  era,  and 
on  both  sides  of  the  social  chasm  a  more  kindly  feeling  was 
manifest.  These  modified  conditions  did  not  promise  any. 
change  of  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  Government  toward  the 
practice  of  plural  marriage ;  but  they  indicated  a  cessation  of 
harsh  and  illegal  methods  of  dealing  with  polygamous  of- 
fenders. There  was  a  general  sentiment  of  reaction,  largely 
springing  from  charitable  impulses.  Some  of  the  "Ultras," 
however,  still  favored  "heroic  treatment"  as  the  most  effective 
means  of  accomplishing  the  end  sought,  and  these  continued 
to  work  for  more  stringent  Congressional  legislation. 

Affairs  in  Idaho. — In  Idaho  the  crusade  had  been  carried 
on  vindictively.  Those  who  engineered  the  "Anti-Mormon" 
movement  in  that  Territory  boasted  that  their  juries  would 
convict  "Mormons"  whether  innocent  or  guilty.  The  U.  S. 
Marshal,  who  afterwards  became  Delegate  in  Congress  and 
subsequently  a  United  States  Senator,  affirmed  that  he  had  "a 
jury  that  would  convict  Jesus  Christ;"  and  no  one  disputed, 
or  had  any  reason  to  dispute,  the  profane  declaration.  But 
now  there  was  a  growing  sentiment  of  moderation.  John  W. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD.  455 

Taylor,  a  "Mormon"  Apostle,  at  a  public  meeting  in  Oxford 
had  criticized  the  disfranchisement  test  oath  and  advised  all 
monogamous  "Mormons"  to  vote  at  the  Delegate  election. 
These  utterances  were  construed  as  "inciting  to  lawlessness," 
and  Elder  Taylor  was  indicted  upon  that  ground.  The  case, 
however,  did  not  come  to, trial,  being  dismissed  in 'May,  1887. 
Elder  Parkinson,  previously  mentioned  as  having  been  sen- 
tenced to  a  year's  imprisonment  at  Boise,  had  served  outtthe 
greater  part  of  his  term  when  he  was  pardoned  by  President 
Cleveland,  upon  the  recommendation  of  James  H.  Hawley,  the 
attorney  who  had  prosecuted  him,  and  who  afterwards  became 
Governor  of  Idaho.* 

Matters  in  Arizona. — Still  more  pronounced  was  the  mod- 
ification of  the  "Anti-Mormon"  feeling  in  Arizona.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1886,  at  the  instance  of  Delegate  C.  C.  Bean  and  other 
influential  citizens,  the  imprisoned  Elders  Tenney,  Christoffer- 
son,  and  Kempe  received  pardon;  and  this  act  of  clemency  on 
the  part  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  was  emulated  by  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Legislature  of  the  Territory  when,  in  January,  1887, 
they  wiped  the  hateful  test  oath  legislation  from  their  statute 
book. 

Business  Versus  Politics. — The  turn  of  the  tide  in  Utah 
was  owing  in  large  part  to  an  action  taken  by  conservative 
"Gentile"  business  men,  who,  weary  of  the  wrangling  of  the 
politicians,  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  the  strife  that  was 
paralyzing  trade  and  driving  away  prosperity.  They  came 
forward  with  a  plan  which  they  hoped  would  end  the  baneful 
agitation.  Governor  West  led  out  in  this  movement,  the  pur- 
pose of  which  was  to  revive  commerce,  encourage  home  indus- 
tries, attract  outside  capital  and  population,  and  if  possible 
bring  together  the  discordant  social  elements  and  weld  them 
into  a  harmonious  homogeneous  force,  working  for  the  welfare 
and  progress  of  the  Territory. 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce. — The  result  was  the  Salt 
Lake  Chamber  of  Commerce,  organized  in  May,  1887;  its 
founders  being  "Gentile"  and  "Mormon"  merchants,  manufac- 
turers, financiers,  and  other  men  of  affairs.  At  first  a  suspicion 
that  the  advancement  of  the  Liberal  Party  was  the  object  in 
view  caused  business  men  of  the  opposite  political  affiliation 
to  hold  aloof  from  the  organization ;  but  when  it  became  ap- 
parent that  politics  and  religion  were  actually  excluded  from 
the  Chamber,  they  rallied  to  its  support,  and  were  among  its 
firmest  and  most  substantial  pillars.  That  it  would  help  to 
allay  ill  feeling,  and  pave  the  way  to  a  better  understanding 

*According  to  Elder  Parkinson,  the  pardon,  which  had  been  en- 
trusted to  the  Idaho  Delegate,  through  some  mischance  did  not  arrive 
itntil  after  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  imprisonment. 


456    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


between  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles,"  was  the  hope  and  ex- 
pectation on  either  side. 

The  Exposition  Car.— Early  in  1888  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce conceived  an  effective  plan  for  advertising  Utah  through 
the  United  States.  A  fund  having  been  raised  among  business 
men  and  other  citizens,  a  car  lent  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  was  fitted  up  with  a  splendid  exhibit  of  native 
products  and  home  manufactures,  and  sent  touring  through 

the  principal  cities  of  the  East. 
The  car  and  the  exhibit  were 
in  charge  of  Mr.  H.  L.  A.  Cul- 
mer,  artist,  and  at  that  time 
editor  of  the  Salt  Lake  Journal 
of  Commerce,  the  official  organ 
of  the  Chamber.  The  Exposi- 
tion Car  left  Utah  on  the  6th  of 
June,  and  in  three  months  trav- 
eled about  nine  thousand  miles. 
It  opened  in  sixty  cities,  and 
was  visited  by  nearly  two  hun- 
dred thousand  people.  Many 
tons  of  printed  matter  were  dis- 
tributed, and  reliable  informa- 
tion upon  Western  affairs 
spread  far  and  wide.  The  cost 
of  the  enterprise  was  a  little 
over  three  thousand  dollars. 
Besides  correcting  many  false 
notions  respecting  Utah,  the 
advertising  did  much  to  in- 
crease the  population  of  the 
Territory  within  the  next  few 
years. 

Constitutional  Convention  of  1887. — The  pacific  influence 
wielded  by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  brought  about  joint 
celebrations  of  Independence  Day  both  in  1887  and  1888;  but 
the  "Gentiles"  were  not  quite  ready  to  join  with  the  "Mormons" 
in  an  effort  to  secure  Statehood.  The  Liberals  having  de- 
clined to  take  part,  a  Constitutional  Convention  elected  by 
members  of  the  People's  Party  assembled  at  Salt  Lake  City 
on  the  last  day  of  June,  1887,  and  took  the  necessary  steps 
toward  applying  for  Utah's  admission  into  the  Union.  The 
Convention  was  remarkable  for  the  fact  that  it  proposed  to 
insert  in  the  State  Constitution  an  article  prohibiting  and 
punishing  polygamy.  Out  of  the  sixty-nine  delegates,  John 
T.  Caine  was  chosen  chairman.  The  test  oath  prescribed  by 
the  Edmunds-Tucker  Law  was  taken  bv  the  officers  and  mem- 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD.  457 

hers.  A  State  Constitution  was  prepared,  submitted  to  the 
people,  ratified  by  an  overwhelming  vote,  and  sent  to  Wash- 
ington. 

Opposition  to  Statehood. — The  Utah  Commission,  or  a 
majority  of  that  body,  in  its  next  official  report,  characterized 
this  movement  for  Statehood  as  an  attempt  to  free  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  from  the  toils  which  the  firm  attitude  of  the 
Government  and  the  energetic  course  of  the  Federal  officers 
had  thrown  around  it.  It  was  represented  that  no  concessions 
had  been  made  as  to  polygamy,  and  that  men  were  still  re- 
ported as  entering  into  the  practice.  Further  radical  legisla- 
tion against  the  "Mormons"  was  recommended. 

Dissenting  Expressions. — Commissioners  Carlton  and  Mc- 
Clernand  refused  to  sign  the  report,  giving  their  reasons  in  a 
separate  communication  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
"Now,"  said  they,  "while  the  great  mass  of  the  Mormon  people 
are  making  an  effort  for  the  abandonment  of  the  practice  of 
polygamy,  we  are  asked  to  recommend  further  legislation  of 
a  hostile  and  an  aggressive  character,  almost  if  not  entirely  de- 
structive of  local  self-government,  thereby  inflicting  punish- 
ment on  the  innocent  as  well  as  the  guilty.  Our  answer  is, 
we  cannot  do  so;  we  decline  to  advise  Congress  to  inflict  pun- 
ishment by  disfranchising  any  portion  of  the  people  of  Utah 
on  account  of  their  religious  or  irreligious  opinions." 

Chief  Justice   Zane,   Surveyor   General   Bowman,   Hadley 

D.  Johnson,  and  other  prominent  "Gentiles"  agreed  with  the 
minority  of  the  Commission,  that  the  existing  laws  against 
polygamy,  diligently  and  strictly  enforced,  might  reasonably 
be  relied  upon  to  work  a  cessation  of  the  practice.     Judge  Zane 
declared  that  since  the  date  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Act  no 
case  of  new  polygamy  had  come  under  his  notice. 

Liberals  in  the  Legislature. — The  Territorial  Legislature 
convening  early  in  January,  1888,  had  five  Liberal  members, 
namely,  Thomas  Marshall,  John  M.  Young,  Enos  D.  Hoge,  of 
Salt  Lake  City ;  D.  C.  McLaughlin,  of  Park  City ;  and  Clarence 

E.  Allen,  of  Bingham.     Marshall  and  Young  were  in  the  Coun- 
cil, and  their  colleagues  in  the  House.     With  the  exception  of 
Mr.  McLaughlin,  who  had  sat  in  the  previous    Legislature, 
these  were  the  first  Liberals  numbered  among  the  law-makers 
of  Utah. 

A  New  Marriage  Law. — A  new  marriage  law  was  enacted, 
prohibiting  polygamy  and  requiring  public  records  of  all  mar- 
riages to  be  kept  in  the  offices  of  the  County  Clerks.  The  au- 
thority to  solemnize  marriages  was  restricted  to  civil  magis- 
trates and  to  ministers  and  priests  of  religious  denominations. 
These  were  to  officiate  only  upon  the  presentation  to  them  of 
licenses  issued  by  the  County  Clerks  to  the  contracting  parties. 


458    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


This  law,  the  bill  for  which  was  presented  by  Judge  Hoge, 
was  a  virtual  re-enactment  of  similar  provisions  in  the  Ed- 
munds and  Edmunds-Tucker  statutes. 

Reform  School  and  Agricultural  College. — Among  the 
bills  passed  by  the  Assembly  and  approved  by  the  Governor, 
was  one  providing  for  the  establishment  of  the  Territorial  Re- 
form School  (now  State  Industrial  School),  and  another  for 
the  founding  of  the  Agricultural  College;  the  former  at  Ogden, 
the  latter  at  Logan.  Both  measures  were  framed  and  pre- 
sented by  Honorable  Anthon 
H.  Lund,  of  Sanpete  County. 
To  establish  these  institutions 
and  support  others,  such  as  the 
University  of  Deseret  and  the 
Asylum  for  the  Insane  (the  lat- 
ter opened  at  Provo  in  1885), 
Utah  assumed  her  first  bonded 
indebtedness — one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  A  third 
of  this  sum  was  appropriated  to 
the  University,  and  forty-five 
thousand  dollars  toward  the 
improvement  of  Capitol  Hill 
and  the  Tenth  Ward  Square, 
both  of  which  properties  had 
just  been  bestowed  upon  the 
Territory  by  the  Corporation 
of  Salt  Lake  City. 

A  Fusion  Movement. — At 
the  approach  of  the  Salt  Lake 
City  election  in  1888,  the  lead- 
ers of  the  People's  Party  de- 
cided to  tender  to  the  Liberals 
four  places  upon  the  majority 

ticket  that  was  about  to  be  put  in  nomination.  The  motive 
behind  the  act  was  stated  as  follows  in  a  resolution  unani- 
mously adopted  by  the  People's  Municipal  Convention :  "We 
desire  to  recognize  the  fact  that  our  political  opponents,  though 
forming  but  a  minority  of  the  voting  population,  contribute 
to  the  public  revenue  by  the  payment  of  taxes,  and  include 
within  their  numbers  many  citizens  who  are  permanent  resi- 
dents of  this  City  and  Territory,  and  that  they  should  there- 
fore be  accorded  fair  representation  in  the  management  of 
public  affairs."  The  proposed  fusion,  though  distasteful  to 
some  of  the  "Anti-Mormons,"  was  accepted  by  a  number  of 
their  prominent  men  and  sanctioned  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 


ANTHON   H.   LUND. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 


459 


Governor  West  heartily  favored  the  fusion  movement,  as 
did  the  editor  of  the  Tribune  and  other  stalwarts  of  the  Lib- 
eral Party.  At  a  meeting  called  to  consider  the  proposition, 
the  Governor  dwelt  upon  the  necessity  for  a  course  of  action 
that  would  give  confidence  to  capital  and  attract  settlers.  He 
expressed  the  opinion  that  new  population  rather  than  laws  of 
Congress  would  work  the  de- 
sired changes  in  Utah.  Judge 
Goodwin  remarked  that  it  look- 
ed to  him  "like  the  dawn  of  a 
brighter  day,"  and  while  some 
might  regard  the  fusion  as  a 
political  trick,  still  the  Liberals 
had  nothing  to  lose,  and  might 
gain  much,  by  accepting  the 
offer  that  had  come  from  the 
other  side.  The  anti-fusionists 
took  the  ground  that  the  Peo- 
ple's Party  was  seeking  affilia- 
tion with  its  opponents  in  order 
to  prolong  its  own  life,  and 
they  were  unwilling  to  give  it 
"one  additional  breath."  The 
"unholy  alliance"  was  de- 
nounced, and  the  Liberals  were 
urged  to  poll  their  full  strength 
for  the  straight  "Gentile" 
ticket. 

At  the  election,  on  the  13th 
of  February,  the  fusionists 
were  victorious  by  a  majority 

of  eight  hundred  and  sixty;  the  total  vote  being  2,714.  The 
four  Liberals  elected  were  William  S.  McCornick,  John  F. 
Dooly,  M.  B.  Sowles,  and  Bolivar  Roberts.  The  first  two 
were  in  the  banking  business;  the  others  followed  mercantile 
pursuits.  Mr.  McCornick  was  President  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  He  was  elected  Alderman,  and  his 
three  colleagues  Councilors,  in  the  City  Government. 

More  Land  Jumping. — While  the  election  was  in  progress, 
an  audacious  attempt  was  made  to  seize  upon  some  of  the 
public  lands  belonging  to  Salt  Lake  City — lands  entered  under 
the  Congressional  Townsite  Act,  and  including  those  for  which 
the  Government  patent  had  been  issued  in  1872.  The  Legis- 
lature, under  authority  conferred  by  Congress,  had  decided 
that  the  old  settlers  were  entitled  to  the  lands  they  occupied, 
upon  payment  of  original  costs,  with  expense  of  survey ; 
the  unocupied  lands  within  the  municipal  limits  to  be  held  in 


WILLIAM   S.   MCCORNICK. 


460    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


trust  by  the  Mayor,  for  the  common  use  and  benefit  of  the 
citizens.  The  City  Authorities  having  failed  to  dispose  of 
these  lands,  certain  speculators  thought  they  saw  an  oppor- 
tunity to  enrich  themselves  at  the  public  expense.  It  was  a 
revival  of  the  old  land-jumping  spirit  that  had  troubled  Utah 
in  earlier  times,  notably  the  decade  of  the  sixties. 

The  person  most  prominent  in  this  fresh  attempt  to  despoil 
the  City  of  its  parks  and  other  properties,  was  a  Colorado  real 

estate  dealer,  who  had  been  at- 
tracted to  Utah  by  "The 
Boom,"  as  the  period  of  pros- 
perity was  termed  that  was  be- 
ginning to  be  felt  as  the  result 
of  the  labors  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  An- 
other would-be  posessor  of  the 
public  lands  was  a  young  man 
who  had  figured  in  the  local 
courts  as  a  stenographer.  The 
Coloradoan  took  possession  of 
about  thirty  acres  on  Arsenal 
Hill,  including  the  present 
Capitol  Hill  grounds ;  while  the 
stenographer  contented  himself 
with  the  Tenth  Ward  Square, 
a  choice  piece  of  realty  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  town,  com- 
prising ten  acres,  originally  de- 
signed for  a  park.  During  two 
days  men  were  at  work  survey- 
ing tracts  from  Arsenal  Hill 
northeastward,  and  to  the  vi- 
cinity of  Ensign  Peak,  fencing 

the  land  with  posts  and  wires.  City  Marshal  Alfred  Solomon 
warned  them  to  desist,  but  they  continued  putting  up  tents 
and  building  shanties,  until  a  small  settlement  seemed  to  have 
sprung  up  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  overlooking  Salt  Lake 
Valley. 

Trespassers  Ousted. — The  City  Authorities  took  the  mat- 
ter coolly,  thinking  at  first  no  additional  immediate  action  on 
their  part  necessary.  Afterwards,  however,  they  decided  to 
eject  the  land-jumpers,  thus  depriving  them  of  any  advantage 
that  might  accrue  from  actual  possession  of  the  property  when 
the  case  came  into  court.  Some  of  the  attorneys  consulted  did 
not  favor  this  summary  action,  but  Mr.  Joseph  L.  Rawlins 
strongly  urged  it.  His  advice  was  taken,  and  the  City  Council 


BOLIVAR    ROBERTS. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 


461 


authorized  the  Mayor,  Francis  Armstrong,  to  carry  it  into 
effect. 

Accordingly,  on  the  morning  of  February  16th,  Mayor 
Armstrong,  with  a  posse  of  sixty  men,  regular  and  special 
police,  proceeded  to  the  camps  on  Arsenal  Hill,  and  ordered  the 
trespassers  to  vacate  the  lands  forthwith.  They  demurred,  and 
were  then  ousted  by  force, 
their  shanties,  tents  and 
fences  being  demolished. 
Leaving  some  of  his  posse 
to  watch  the  hill,  the  Mayor 
sent  twenty  officers  to  the 
Tenth  Ward  Square,  where 
a  notice  had  been  posted, 
reading:  "This  Land  For 
Sale — Inquire  Within".  Two 
men  who  were  plowing  beat 
a  hasty  retreat  on  catching 
sight  of  the  police,  who  tore 
down  the  notice,  dropped  the 
plow  outside  the  field,  and 
set  a  guard  upon  the 
grounds.  Washington  Square 
was  seized  about  the  same 
time,  and  Liberty  Park  and 
other  properties  were  threat- 
ened. But  the  ejectment 
proceedings  put  a  stop  to 
further  land-jumping. 

Law    and    Order    Sus- 
tained.— Mayor     Armstrong 

and  his  associates  were  arrested,  charged  with  committing  "a 
trespass."  They  had  a  hearing  before  United  States  Commis- 
sioner A.  G.  Norrell,  who  decided  that  they  were  not  guilty. 
Subsequently  Chief  Justice  Zane  rendered  a  decision  on  the 
rightful  ownership  of  the  unsettled  lands.  He  ruled  in  favor 
of  the  City,  but  held  that  those  lands  should  be  disposed  of,  as 
contemplated  by  the  Legislature.  Failure  on  the  part  of  the 
municipal  authorities  to  act  promptly,  however,  did  not  justify 
individuals  in  seizing  upon  the  public  property. 

Gift  and  Sale  of  Lands. — Judge  Zane's  decision  gave  gen- 
eral satisfaction.  On  the  day  that  it  was  rendered,  February 
28.  1888,  the  Mayor  and  City  Council  conveyed  as  a  gift  to  the 
Territory  of  Utah  that  portion  of  Arsenal  Hill  now  called 
Capitol  Hill,  as  a  site  for  future  State  Buildings;  also  the 
Tenth  Ward  Square,  with  the  understanding  that  it  was' to  be 
used  for  permanent  Fair  Grounds.  Most  of  the  City's  unoc- 


MAYOR    ARMSTRONG. 


462    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

cupied  lands  were  sold  at  auction  during  the  next  two  years, 
and  the  proceeds  turned  into  the  public  treasury.* 

New  Federal  Judges. — Toward  the  close  of  1888,  Utah 
was  given  a  new  Chief  Justice  in  the  person  of  Elliot  Sand- 
ford,  of  New  York;  and  at  the  same  time  a  fourth  magistrate, 
John  W.  ludd,  of  Tennessee,  was  added  to,  the  Supreme 
Bench  of  the  Territory.  The  recently  appointed  magistrates 
arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  August  of  that  year. 

Concerning  Chief  Justice  Zane. — Commenting  upon  the 
retiring  Chief  Justice,  whose  term  expired  in  September,  the 
Deseret  News  expressed  itself  thus :  "There  have  been  many 
things  in  Judge  Zane's  administration  which  have  been  for  the 
best  interests  of  society  here,  and  for  which  we  think  he  should 
and  will  receive  due  credit."  "Apart  from  what  we  view  as  his 
anti-'Mormon'  animus,  Judge  Zane  has  been  one  of  the  very 
best  judges  who  has  sat  upon  the  bench  in  Utah."  "He  has 
usually  exhibited  the  characteristics  and  qualities  of  a  learned 
lawyer  and  an  upright  jurist.  He  has  sustained  the  cause  of 
law  and  order  and  the  rights  of  the  people,  their  municipal 
authorities,  their  school  laws,  and  their  city  ordinances."  "We 
entertain  for  him  no  ill  will.  We  understand  he  intends  to 
remain  here  and  practice  law.  We  hope  he  will  achieve  the 
success  that  his  talents  demand,  and  that  he  will  find,  in  his 
experience  among  the  'Mormon'  people,  that  they  are  not 
vindictive  or  revengeful,  but  ever  ready  to  recognize  merit  and 
sincerely  disposed  to  return  good  for  evil." 

Forfeiture  and  Appeal. — During  October  the  confiscation 
suits  were  again  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory.  A 
petition  was  presented  from  the  Church  Trustees,  Bishops 
Preston,  Burton,  and  Winder,  asking  that  the  Temple  Block, 

*That  portion  of  Arsenal  Hill  now  occupied  by  the  Utah  State 
Capitol,  was  the  scene,  in  1876,  of  a  terrific  explosion,  which 
shook  Salt  Lake  City  to  its  foundations.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon 
of  April  5th  when  the  explosion  occurred,  three  heavy  detonations, 
startling  in  their  suddenness  and  almost  deafening  in  sound,  spreading 
dismay  and  confusion  on  every  hand.  Several  minutes  passed  before 
the  cause  was  divined,  and  meanwhile  suspense  made  the  terror  ten- 
fold, men,  women  and  children  running  hither  and  thither,  excited, 
alarmed  and  hysterical.  Walls  were  blown  down,  roofs  torn  off,  doors 
and  shutters  flung  from  their  fastenings,  and  window  glass  shattered 
and  strewn  broadcast.  Presently  the  solution  came.  A  huge  cloud 
of  smoke  hovering  over  Arsenal  Hill  told  the  story.  At  a  point  near 
the  present  State  Capitol  three  small  stone  houses,  owned  by  mercan- 
tile firms  and  used  for  the  storage  of  powder,  had  blown  up,  the  fall- 
ing debris  pelting  the  hillsides  and  various  parts  of  the  town.  Sev- 
eral persons  were  killed  and  others  wounded.  The  cause  of  the  catas- 
trophe was  never  fully  explained.  It  was  supposed,  however,  that 
some  boys,  known  to  have  been  shooting  in  that  neighborhood,  had 
used  the  iron  door  of  one  of  the  magazines  for  a  target,  and  were 
the  first  victims  of  the  explosion  that  followed. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 


463 


Tithing  Office,  Gardo  House,  and  Historian's  Office  properties 
be  exempted  from  forfeiture.  This  petition  wa-s  denied,  ex- 
cept as  to  Temple  Block.  Denial  was  also  made  to  a  petition 
from  George  Romney,  Henry  Dinwoody,  James  Watson  and 
John  Clark,  who,  as  intervenors,  had  requested  that  an  order 
be  made  returning  all  property  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Re- 
ceiver to  the  individual  members  of  the  Church,  who  had 
voluntarily  donated  it  for  religious  and  charitable  purposes.  A 
decree  of  forfeiture  having  been  entered,  an  appeal  was  taken 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  Receiver's  Compensation. — The  question  of  compen- 
sation for  the  Receiver  and  his  attorneys  came  before  Referee 
E.  T.  Sprague,  appointed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Utah  to 
take  testimony  as  to  the  value  of  the  service  rendered.  Re- 
ceiver Dyer  thought  that  his  compensation  should  not  be  less 
than  twenty-five  thousand  dollars;  and  his  attorney,  Mr.  Wil- 
liams, and  U.  S.  Attorney  Peters  each  put  in  a  claim  for  ten 
thousand  dollars.  Later,  while  the  Supreme  Court  was  con- 
sidering the  question,  Ex-Chief  Justice  Zane  appeared  in  be- 
half of  certain  school  trustees,  who,  fearing  the  property 
escheated  for  educational  purposes  was  about  to  be  wrongfully 
diverted,  protested  against  the  granting  of  such  heavy  fees. 
At  the  same  time  certain  charges  were  made  against  the  Re- 
ceiver and  his  legal  advisers.  This  led  to  an  inquiry  before 
Examiner  Robert  Harkness, 
appointed  for  that  special  pur- 
pose. The  Receiver  was  able 
to  exonerate  himself  and  his 
attorneys  as  to  the  charges; 
but  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Territory,  in  March,  1889, 
basing  its  action  upon  an  in- 
vestigation ordered  by  Attor- 
ney General  Garland,  decided 
the  fees  excessive,  and  they 
were  reduced.  Receiver  Dver 
was  allowed  ten  thousand,  Mr. 
Williams  five  thousand  five 
hundred,  and  Mr.  Peters  four 
thousand  dollars,  for  their 
services.  These  amounts, 
with  other  'expenses,  aggre- 
gating $27,365.63,  were  paid 
out  of  the  Church  funds  in  the 
hands  of  the  Receiver. 

A  Day  of  Lenity  Dawns. 
—From   the   hour    of    Judge  FRANCIS  M.  LYMAN. 


464    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR -HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Sandford's  installation,  it  was  evident  that  judicial  proceed- 
ings in  Utah  would  be  divested  of  all  undue  severity.  Judge 
Zane  had  deemed  heavy  penalties  necessary  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  plural  marriage  problem,  but  his  successor  held 
the  opinion  that  some  leniency  should  be  shown.  Like  Judge 
Emerson,  he  was  opposed  to  singling  out  any  particular  trans- 
gression and  making  special  war  upon  it.  "Treat  it  as  any 
other  offense,"  was  the  ex- 
pression of  his  attitude  to- 
ward polygamy.  Judge  Judd 
was  influenced  by  a  similar 
spirit. 

As  soon  as  it  became 
known  that  a  modified  pro- 
cedure would  prevail  in  the 
Federal  Courts,  many  persons 
who  had  long  evaded  legal 
process  surrendered  them- 
selves and  asked  to  be  dealt 
with  according  to  law.  The 
first  to  pursue  this  course  was 
President  George  Q.  Cannon, 
who  appeared  before  Chief 
Justice  Sandford  on  the  17th 
of  September,  1888,  and  plead- 
ed guilty  to  two  indictments 
for  unlawful  cohabitation.  On 
the  first  count  he  was  fined 
two  hundred  dollars,  and 
sentenced  to  the  Penitentiary 
for  seventy-five  days;  on  the 
second  count  a  fine  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  was  imposed,  with  imprisonment 
for  one  hundred  days.  Elder  Francis  M.  Lyman,  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve,  surrendered  in  like  manner,  pleading 
guilty  to  unlawful  cohabitation,  for  which  he  had  been  in- 
dicted five  times.  Four  of  the  indictments  were  dismissed,  and 
upon  the  remaining  one  he  was  fined  two  hundred  dollars 
and  costs,  and  sentenced  to  eighty-five  days  in  the  Territorial 
prison.  The  date  of  this  judgment  was  January  14,  1889. 

Penitentiary  Improvements. — Important  and  much  needed 
improvements  had  recently  taken  place  at  the  Utah  Peni- 
tentiary. With  means  appropriated  by  Congress  for  the  pur- 
pose, new  buildings,  steam-heated  and  otherwise  well  ap- 
pointed, had  been  erected  in  the  old  prison  yard,  and  the  log 
hovels  and  other  primitive  appurtenances  had  entirely  dis- 
appeared. New  cells  had  been  constructed,  lavatories  and 


WARDEN    PRATT. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 


465 


other  conveniences  provided,  and  though  the  discipline  was 
stricter  than  ever,  the  place  was  clean  and  wholesome  an4 
the  inmates  far  more  comfortable  than  they  had  been.  Arthur 
Pratt,  a  Utah  man,  was  the  efficient  Warden  of  the  improved 
institution.* 

Judge  Sandford  Criticized. — Chief  Justice  Sandford  was 
much  criticized  for  his  leniency.  In  the  eyes  of  the  "Ultras," 
he  was  an  enemy  to  progress.  But  he  steadily  held  on  his 
way,  doing  his  duty  conscientiously  and  humanely,  regardless 
of  the  censure  heaped  upon  him.  He  was  not  the  only  public 
official  blamed  for  showing  lenity  toward  the  convicted  "Mor- 
mons." Even  the  President  of  the  United  States  did  not 
escape. 

Number  of  Convictions  and  Pardons. — Delegate  Dubois, 
of  Idaho,  introduced  a  resolution  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, requesting  the  Attorney  General  to  furnish  a  list  of 
pardons  granted  by  President  Cleveland  to  persons  convicted 
of  unlawful  cohabitation  in  Utah  and  Idaho.  The  resolution 
having  been  adopted,  the  Department  of  Justice  reported, 


NEW  PENITENTIARY  OR  STATE  PRISON. 


*Mr.  Pratt  is  Warden  of  the  State  Prison  at  the  present  time 
(1916).  He  deserves  much  credit  for  his  wise  and  efficient  manage- 
ment of  the  institution.  Long  ago  he  abolished  the  humiliating  stripes 
in  which  convicts  were  clothed,  and  is  noted  for  his  humane  efforts  to 
reclaim  wrong-doers  placed  in  his  charge. 
29 


460    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

September  13,  1888,  that  the  number  of  convictions  under  the 
anti-polygamy  statutes — mostly  for  unlawful  cohabitation — 
was  five  hundred  for  Utah,  and  eighty-nine  for  Idaho;  and 
that  the  total  of  pardons  for  both  Territories  was  fourteen. 
In  Utah  fines  and  costs  collected  in  such  cases  amounted  to 
$45,956.90;  and  in  Idaho  to  $2,251.10;  these  amounts  not  in- 
cluding the  $25,000,  forfeited  in  the  Cannon  case.  It  was. 
shown  that  no  pardon  had  been  granted  except  upon  the  rec- 
ommendation of  the  United  States  Attorney  prosecuting  the 
case,  nor  unless  the  person  pardoned  was  aged,  ailing,  or 
otherwise  clearly  entitled  to  clemency. 

The  Case  of  Hans  Nielson. — Judge  Judd's  most  import- 
ant trial  while  on  the  Utah  Bench  was  that  of  Hans  Nielson, 
charged  with  unlawful  cohabitation  and  adultery;  the  former 
under  the  Edmunds  Act,  the  latter  under  the  Edmunds-Tucker 
Law.  The  two  offenses  were  in  reality  one,  the  woman  in  the 
affair  being  the  defendant's  plural  wife,  with  whom  he  had 
lived  from  October  15,  1885,  to  September  27,  1888;  the  latter 
being  the  date  of  both  indictments.  Instead  of  charging  one 
continuous  offense,  covering  the  entire  period,  the  Grand  Jury 
had  first  indicted  Nielson  for  unlawful  cohabitation  from  Oc- 
tober 15,  '1885,  to  May  13,  1888;  and  had  then  brought  in  a 
bill  for  adultery,  alleged  to  have  been  committed  by  the  de- 
fendant with  this  same  wife  on  May  14th — the  very  next  day. 

The  trial  on  the  first  indictment  took  place  in  November 
of  that  year ;  the  court  being  held  at  Provo.  Convicted  of  un- 
lawful cohabitation,  Nielson  was  fined  one  hundred  dollars 
and  costs  and  sentenced  to  three  months  imprisonment.  Hav- 
ing satisfied  this  judgment,  he  was  brought  to  trial  on  the 
second  indictment.  His  former  conviction  was  pleaded  as  a 
bar  to  further  prosecution,  but  a  demurrer  to  that  plea  was 
sustained  by  the  Court,  and  the  defendant,  again  convicted, 
was  sent  back  to  the  Penitentiary;  this  time  for  four  months. 
The  Court  denied  an  application  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  the  case  was  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  where  it  was  heard  in  the  latter  part  of  April,  and  de- 
cided on  the  13th  of  May,  1889.  The  decision,  voiding  the 
judgment  of  the  trial  court,  held  that  a  person  could  not  be 
convicted  of  two  different  offenses  covered  by  the  same  trans- 
action. 

Nielson  was  immediately  released,  as  were  several  other 
persons  who  had  been  convicted  in  like  manner  and  were 
serving  sentences  in  the  Penitentiary.  One  of  these  was  Bishop 
William  H.  Maughan,  of  Wellsville.  The  Nielson  case  had 
been  tried  with  the  understanding  that  it  would  test  all  other 
cases  of  like  character,  and  be  passed  upon  by  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Washington. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 


467 


Howard  Spencer's  Acquittal. — While  assisting  in  the 
Third  District  Court,  Judge  Judd  presided  at  the  trial  of 
Howard  Spencer,  indicted  for  the  killing  of  Sergeant  Ralph 
Pike  in  August,  1859,  as  set  forth  in  Chapter  Sixteen  of  this 
History.  Spencer's  trial  took  place  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  May 
1889;  United  States  Attorney  Peters,  assisted  by  Ogden  Hiles, 
conducting  the  prosecution ; 
and  Arthur  Brown,  Sheeks 
and  Rawlins,  and  Le  Grande 
Young  appearing  for  the  de- 
fense. Most  of  the  jurors 
were  "Gentiles."  The  defend- 
ant was  acquitted.  The  ver- 
dict, though  displeasing  to  the 
Judge,  who  expressed  his  dis- 
satisfaction from  the  Bench, 
was  applauded  in  the  court 
room  and  approved  by  the 
general  public. 

Three  Candidates  for 
Congress. — The  autumn  of 
1888  found  three  candidates  in 
the  field  for  Delegate  to  Con- 
gress. They  were  John  T. 
Caine,  renominated  by  the 
People's  Party;  Robert  N. 
Baskin,  the  Liberal  nominee; 
and  Samuel  R.  Thurman,  rep- 
resenting "The  Democratic 
Party  of  the  Territory  of  s.  R.  THURMAN. 

Utah,"  otherwise  known  as  "The  Sagebrush  Democracy." 
The  last-named  organization,  which  had  just  been  formed, 
was  of  meager  membership,  though  comprising  some  well 
known  names,  "Mormon"  and  "Gentile."  Short-lived  and 
seemingly  barren  of  results,  it  nevertheless  made  an  impression 
on  the  politics  of  the  period,  foreshadowing  events  that  were 
tc  follow.  The  Liberal  Convention  was  held  at  Park  City,  and 
that  of  the  People's  Party  at  the  Territorial  capital,  where 
the  Democrats  also  assembled.  Delegate  Caine  was  again 
chosen.  His  election  took  place  simultaneously  with  the  great 
national  contest  that  returned  to  power  the  Republican  Party, 
with  Benjamin  Harrison  as  President. 

The  Statehood  Question.— The  Constitution  of  the  pro- 
posed State  of  Utah,  prepared  in  1887,  with  a  memorial  asking 
for  admission  into  the  Union,  had  been  presented  to  Congress 
in  January,  1888.  Senate  and  House  each  referred  the  matter  to 
its  Committee  on  Territories.  The  Senate  Committee  disposed 


468    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  it  in  March  of  that  year,  when  Senator  Cullom  reported 
a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  Utah  ought  not  to  be  admitted 
as  a  State  until  it  was  certain  that  the  practice  of  polygamy 
had  been  entirely  abandoned  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Terri- 
tory, and  that  the  civil  affairs  thereof  were  no  longer  controlled 
by  the  priesthood  of  the  "Mormon"  Church.  The  Committee 
v/as  discharged  from  further  consideration  of  the  question  . 

The  House  Committee  took  it  up  in  January,  1889.  To 
oppose  Statehood,  the  Liberals  had  sent  to  Washington  Robert 
N.  Baskin  and  John  R.  McBride,  and  they  were  zealously  as- 
sisted by  the  "Anti-Mormon"  Delegate  from  Idaho.  Governor 
West,  E.  P.  Ferry  and  P.  H.  Lannan  were  also  at  the  capital 
that  winter,  and  the  Governor  took  part  in  the  proceedings 
before  the  Committee.  On  the  other  side  were  Delegate  Caine, 
Franklin  S.  Richards,  Jeremiah  M.  Wilson*  (a  Washington 
lawyer),  Delegate  Mark  A.  Smith  and  Ex-Delegate  Bean,  both 
of  Arizona.  President  Joseph  F.  Smith,  John  W.  Young,  and 
Charles  W.  Penrose  were  likewise  at  the  seat  of  Govern- 
ment, using  their  influence  for  Statehood.  While  he  was 
in  Washington,  Mr.  Penrose,  who  had  been  indicted  for  a 
minor  infraction  of  the  Edmunds  Law,  received  special  am- 
nesty from  President  Cleveland,  just  before  his  retirement 
from  office. 

During  one  of  the  sessions  of  the  House  Committee,  in 
reply  to  Mr.  F.  S.  Richards,  who  had  called  attention  to  the 
achievements  of  the  Utah  Pioneers,  Judge  McBride  asserted 
that  "there  never  was  a  more  inviting  country  than  Utah  when 
the  Mormons  went  there."  He  claimed  to  have  passed  through 
Salt  Lake  Valley  on  his  way  to  Oregon,  before  the  arrival  of 
the  Pioneers.  Said  he :  "I  have  had  my  moccasins  wet  with 
the  dew  on  the  grass  while  riding  through  the  meadows  of  that 
valley  before  it  was  settled." 

This  attempt  to  depreciate  the  founders  of  the  Territory 
and  minimize  their  service  to  civilization,  was  not  particularly 
pleasing  even  to  McBride's  own  partisans.  Governor  West; 
one  of  the  subsequent  speakers,  evidently  had  it  in  mind  when 
he  addressed  the  Committee,  saying:  "I  shall  not  arraign 
the  Mormon  people  as  wanting  in  religious  devotion,  virtue, 
honesty,  sobriety,  industry,  and  the  graces  and  qualities  that 
adorn,  beautify  and  bless  life;  nor  will  I  attempt  to  detract 
from  the  praise  and  glory  that  are  due  or  claimed  for  the 
hardy  Pioneers  who  settled  and  reclaimed  that  land."  In  his 
opinion,  however,  none  of  these  things  could  justify  "the  des- 
potism of  the  Mormon  political  system,"  and  until  that  was  a 
thing  of  the  past  he  was  opposed  to  the  admission  of  Utah  as  a 
State.  The  Governor  had  previously  spoken  of  "marked  and 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD.  469 

decided  changes"  for  the  better,  mentioning  the  labors  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  the  giving  to  the  ''Gen- 
tiles," by  the  "Mormons,"  of  representation  in  the  government 
of  their  capital  city,  and  on  the  boards  controlling  the  Asylum 
for  the  Insane,  the  University  of  Deseret,  the  Reform  School, 
Agricultural  College,  and  Territorial  Fair.  He  further 
stated  that  the  last  Legislative  Assembly  had  enacted  liberal 
laws  for  cities,  enabling  them  to  make  lo'ans  and  issue  bonds 
for  sewerage  and  additional  water  supplies. 

Delegate  Caine  referred  to  conditions  in  Utah,  and  Dele- 
gate Dubois  portrayed  the  situation  in  Idaho,  where,  he  said, 
"Mormons"  were  severing  their  connection  with  the  Church 
in  order  to  retain  the  privileges  of  citizenship.  Judge  Baskin 
repeated  charges  that  he  had  often  made  against  the  "Mormon" 
priesthood  and  people,  and  Messrs.  Bean  and  Smith  defended 
them.  Judge  Wilson  advocated  Statehood  as  the  best  means 
of  solving  the  vexed  problem.  He  replied  to  the  argument  ad- 
vanced by  the  other  side,  that  the  submitted  Constitution  con- 
tained provisions  (such  as  the  proposed  punishment  of  poly- 
gamy) that  would  deprive  Utah,  if  admitted  into  the  Union,  of 
that  equality  that  should  exist  among  the  different  States,  and 
showed  that  Congress  had  power  to,  enforce  the  special  con- 
tract. 

The  main  argument  against  Utah's  admission  was  the  al- 
leged insincerity  of  the  "Mormon"  people.  Their  recent  acts  of 
liberality  toward  political  opponents,  public  movements  and 
institutions,  were  declared  to  be  calculating  concessions,  made 
to  secure  Statehood  and  perpetuate  the  tyrannous  power  of  the 
Church.  The  anti-polygamy  clauses  in  the  proposed  Consti- 
tution were  "a  rope  of  sand."  The  Territory  should  not  be 
admitted  until  polygamy  had  been  entirely  abandoned,  and 
civil  affairs  taken  from  the  control  of  the  Priesthood. 

The  admission  of  all  the  Territories  as  States  had  been 
urged  by  the  "Mormon5  delegation  at  the  capital,  and  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  seemed  to  favor  the  proposition;  but  the  preju- 
dice in  Congress  against  Utah  was  too  thick  to  be  penetrated 
by  those  who  were  then  working  for  her  political  sovereignty. 
After  several  weeks  of  deliberation,  the  House  Committee  on 
Territories  reported  favorably  upon  the  admission  of  Idaho, 
Arizona,  and  Wyoming;  but  omitted  from  its  recommendation 
the  fairest  and  most  eligible  of  all  the  dependent  common- 
wealths— Utah,  the  Cinderella  of  the  National  Household. 

Incoming  and  Outgoing  Officials. — Within  six  months 
after  his  inauguration  (March  4,  1889),  President  Harrison 
removed  most  of  the  Democrats  holding  Federal  offices  in 
Utah,  and  filled  the  places  with  Republicans.  Caleb  W.  West 
was  succeeded  as  Governor  by  Arthur  L.  Thomas;  and  Wil- 


470    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Ham  C.  Hall  as  Secretary  by  Elijah  Sells.  Governor  Thomas' 
place  as  a  member  of  the  Utah  Commission  was  given  to  Alvin 
Saunders,  of  Nebraska.  Commissioner  Carlton  had  resigned 
in  April,  and  Robert  S.  Robertson,  of  Indiana,  had  been  ap- 
pointed in  his  stead.  The  next  chairman  of  the  Commission 
was  Mr.  Godfrey.  An  official  change  that  caused  more  com- 
ment than  all  the  others  combined  was  the  removal  of  Chief 
Justice  Sandford  and  the  reappointment  of  his  predecessor, 
Chief  of  Justice  Zane.  This  news  was  telegraphed  from  Wash- 
ington on  the  24th  of  May.  Judge  Zane's  return  to  office  was 
accepted  as  an  indication  of  the  attitude  of  the  new  Adminis- 
tration toward  Utah.  It  was  the  removal  of  Sandford,  how- 
ever, rather  than  the  reappointment  of  Zane,  that  occasioned 
the  widespread  comment. 

President  Harrison's  "Policy."- — Judge  Sandford  had  writ- 
ten out  his  resignation  soon  after  Harrison  was  inaugurated, 
but  yielding  to  the  solicitation  of  prominent  members  of  the 
Utah  Bar,  he  had  refrained  from  sending  it  to  Washington. 
Two  months  later  he  was  requested  to  resign.  Thereupon  he 
wrote  to  Attorney-General  Miller,  asking  if  any  charges  of 
official  misconduct  had  been  filed  against  him,  at  the  same 
time  expressing  the  opinion  that  if  such  charges  had  been 
made,  it  would  be  improper  for  him  to  resign  until  they  were 
met.  If,  however,  a  change  was  necessary  for  merely  political 
reasons,  he  would  send  in  his  resignation  as  soon  as  practic- 
able. The  answer  was  his  removal,  accompanied  by  a  state- 
ment that  papers  were  on  file  in  the  Department  of  Justice 
complaining  of  the  manner  in  which  he  had  discharged  his 
official  duties.  "Independently  of  these  particular  complaints/' 
added  the  Attorney-General,  "the  President  has  become  sat- 
isfied that  your  administration  of  the  office  is  not  in  harmony 
with  the  policy  he  deems  proper  to  be  pursued  with  reference 
to  Utah  affairs." 

Judge  Sandford's  Reply. — Judge  Sandford  made  the  fol- 
lowing rejoinder:  "My  earnest  purpose  while  on  the  Bench, 
as  Chief  Justice  of  this  Territory,  has  been  to  administer  jus- 
tice and  the  laws  honestly  and  impartially  to  all  men,  under 
the  obligations  of  my  oath  of  office.  If  the  President  of  the 
United  States  has  any  policy  which  he  desires  a  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  to  carry  out  in  reference  to  Utah  affairs  other 
than  the  one  I  have  pursued,  you  may  say  to  him  that  he  has 
done  well  to  remove  me." 

The  Attorney-General's  remark  upon  the  "policy"  that 
President  Harrison  deemed  proper  to  be  pursued  by  Federal 
TiulFes,  called  forth  much  criticism,  particularly  from  Demo- 
cratic sources.  The  idea  that  magistrates  chosen  to  admin- 
ister law  and  mete  out  justice  were  but  factotums  of  the 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD.  471 

National  Administration — "the  Judiciary  a  mere  catspaw  for 
the  Executive,"  as  Judge  Judd  put  it — was  severely  satirized. 
For  many  days  the  country  resounded  with  a  journalistic  bom- 
bardment, pouring  the  hot  shot  of  protest  and  denunciation  in 
the  direction  of  the  White  House.  Judge  Sandford's  dignified 
response  was  in  everybody's  mouth,  and  the  letter  containing 
it  probably  did  more  for  its  author's  fame  than  any  other  act 
of  his  life. 

Judge  Zane  and  Associates — Other  Federal  Appointees.— 
Chief  Justice  Zane  returned  to  the  Bench  on  the  third  day  of 
June.  His  course  from  that  time  was  not  what  many  feared 
it  would  be.  He  seemed  actuated  by  a  more  conservative 
spirit,  and  his  known  respect  for  law  and  order,  with  the  gen- 
eral uprightness  of  his  character,  made  him  acceptable  to 
"Mormons"  and  "Gentiles"  alike  Associate  Justices  Thomas 
J.  Anderson  and  Henry  P.  Henderson  were  among  the  few 
Democrats  whom  President  Harrison  allowed  to  remain  in 
office.  Judge  Anderson  was  originally  from  Illinois,  but  at 
the  time  of  his  appointment,  a  resident  of  Washington,  D.  C. 
He  had  succeeded  Judge  Boreman,  who  became  Utah's  Com- 
missioner of  Schools,  succeeding  Parley  L.  Williams  in  that 
position,  the  power  to  fill  which  had  been  vested  by  Congress 
in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory. 

District  Attorney  Peters  and  Marshal  Dyer  were  the  next 
officials  to  retire.  The  former  was  succeeded  by  Charles  S. 
Varian,  and  the  latter  by  Elias  H.  Parsons,  both  appointed  in 
the  summer  of  that  year.  Judge  Judd  resigned,  but  remained 
in  Utah,  and  a  few  years  later  became  United  States  Attorney 
for  the  Territory.  His  successor  as  Associate  Justice  was 
John  W  Blackburn. 

Ogden  Goes  Liberal. — The  Liberal  Party  had  been  grad- 
ually gaining  ground  in  some  parts  of  Utah,  and  it  now  elected 
for  the  first  time  the  municipal  government  of  the  second  city 
in  the  Territory.  An  important  railroad  center,  Ogden  for 
many  years  had  had  a  varied  population.  Early  in  1889  the 
Liberals  prepared  to  carry  the  town.  Their  campaign  man- 
ager was  Harvey  W.  Smith,' alias  "Kentucky"  Smith,  a  trained 
politician  and  a  lawyer  of  much  ability,  the  reputed  author  of 
the  Idaho  test  oath  law.  Election  day  was  the  llth  of  Feb- 
ruarv.  The  Liberals  won  by  a  majority  of  over  four  hundred ; 
Mr.  Fred  L  Kiesel  heading  the  victorious  ticket  as  Mayor.  A 
pandemonium  of  rejoicing  followed,  such  as  the  Junction  City 
had  never  known. 

A  Prophetic  Majority.- — At  the  August  election,  which  was 
for  county  officers  and  members  of  the  Legislature,  O^den 
again  went  Liberal,  though  with  two  hundred  less  majority 
than  before.  Juab  County  was  carried  by  a  coalition  of  Lib- 


472    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

erals  and  Independents,  and  Summit  County  by  the  usual 
Liberal  majority.  That  party  elected  eight  members  of  the 
Legislature.  Its  greatest  cause  for  rejoicing,  however,  was  a 
majority  of  forty-one  votes,  cast  at  Salt  Lake  City.  Great 
was  the  jubilation  when  this  fact  became  known.  The  Ogden 
demonstration  was  insignificant  by  comparison.  The  Liberal 

managers  now  laid  their  plans 
to  take  the  Territorial  capital. 
Drastic  Recommendations. 
— The  Utah  Commission,  in  its 
annual  report,  September,  1889, 
repeated  some  of  its  former 
recommendations,  and  added 
others  which,  if  enacted  into 
laws,  would  have  made  of  Utah 
a  veritable  slave  pen,  with  little 
or  nothing  left  to  the  majority 
of  the  people  beyond  the  priv- 
ilege of  breathing  and  paying 
taxes.  They  were  not  only  to 
be  disfranchised,  but  also  de- 
barred from  the  advantages  of 
the  homestead  laws.  The 
founders  of  the  commonwealth, 
were  to  be  treated  as  outlaws, 

MAYOR  KIESEL.  lo^d  °ver  by  petty  satraps 

chosen  from  the  ranks  of  a 

hostile  minority,  wielding  despotic  powers  and  having  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  the  Pioneers  as  their  manservants  and  maid- 
servants, their  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water!  But 
such  an  infamy  was  not  to  be. 

All  the  Commissioners  but  one  signed  this  report.  Brave 
old  General  McClernand  stood  out  alone,  refusing  to  put  his 
name  to  the  drastic  document.  He  maintained  that  the  ex- 
isting laws  against  polygamous  practices  were  working  well 
enough,  and  that  further  legislation  trenching  upon,  civil  and 
political  privileges  and  religious  convictions,  would  be  in- 
jurious rather  than  beneficent. 

Governor  Thomas. — In  October  Governor  Arthur  L. 
Thomas  made  his  first  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
Estimating  the  population  of  the  Territory  at  230,000 — a  cal- 
culation subsequently  shown  to  be  excessive — he  stated  that 
the  number  of  "Gentiles"  had  largely  increased  as  the  result 
of  "The  Boom."*  Outside  of  Salt  Lake  City,  Ogden,  the  min- 

*The  wave  of  material  prosperity  that  went  by  that  name  was 
characterized  by  a  sudden  inflation  of  values,  particularly  in  real 
estate.  Then  followed  the  inevitable  depression,  and  while  some  were 
enrichrd,  others  were  financially  ruined. 


RIFTS  IN  THE  CLOUD. 


473 


ing  camps  and  small  railroad  towns,  the  "Mormons"  were  in 
the  majority.  In  all  but  one  of  the  twenty-four  counties,  and 
in  255  of  the  278  election  precincts,  the  "Gentiles"  were  in  the 
minority  at  the  last  election.  The  "Mormons"  were  mainly 
agriculturists,  owning  most  of 
the  land  and  water,  and  there- 
fore owning  Utah.  They  were 
industrious,  frugal,  and  easily 
governed,  particularly  by  their 
Church  leaders,  a  firm  religious 
enthusiasm  being-  their  leading- 
characteristic.  The  Governor 
cited  various  measures  sug- 
gested for  the  solution  of  the 
"Mormon  Problem,"  and  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  "any 
temporizing  policy"  which  left 
the  Church  "in  a  position  to 
control  the  politics  of  the  Ter- 
ritory" was  "only  delaying  the 
final  settlement." 

A  Solution  at  Hand.— 
What  was  meant  by  "the  final 
settlement,"  the  Governor  did 
not  say.  A  settlement  was  at 
hand  which  probably  surprised 
him  as  much  as  anyone — a  so- 
lution unlocked  for  either  by  "Mormons"  or  "Gentiles,"  and 
more  generally  acceptable,  perhaps,  than  any  other  that  could 
have  been  proposed. 


GOVERNOR  THOMAS 


XXXII. 
THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE. 

1889-1891. 

A  New  Order  of  Things. — The  decade  of  the  "nineties" 
witnessed  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  in  Utah.  One  event  alone 
sufficed  to  introduce  a  new  order  of  things.  That  event  was 
the  issuance  by  the  "Mormon"  President,  and  the  acceptance 
by  the  "Mormon"  people,  of  the  famous  "Manifesto,"  with- 


George   Q.   Cannon.  Joseph  F.  Smith.  Wilford  Woodruff. 

PRESIDENT  WOODRUFF  AND  COUNSELORS. 

drawing  sanction  from  the  further  solemnization  of  plural  mar- 
riages. The  head  of  the  Church  at  that  time  was  Wilford 
Woodruff,  a  Pioneer  of  1847,  and  senior  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Twelve  at  the  death  of  President  John  Taylor.  By- 
virtue  of  this  seniority,  he  had  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  in 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE.  475 

April,  1889,  choosing  George  Q.  Cannon  and  Joseph  F.  Smith 
as  his  counselors,  thus  placing  them  in  the  same  relative  posi- 
tions that  they  had  formerly  held.  Before  the  subject  of  the 
Manifesto  is  presented,  several  earlier  happenings  must  re- 
ceive attention  from  the  historian. 

The  Case  of  Auditor  and  Treasurer. — The  opening  of  the 
new  decade  brought  to  a  close  the  controversy  between  the 
Governor  and  the  Legislature  over  the  right  to  appoint  certain 
Territorial  officers.  As  previously  shown,  Section  Seven  of 
the  Organic  Act  authorized  the  Executive  to  nominate,  and, 
by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Legislative  Council, 
appoint  all  officers  not  otherwise  provided  for  in  that  statute. 
Among  those  "not  otherwise  provided  for"  were  the  Auditor 
and  Treasurer.  These  officers,  with  others,  Governor  Mur- 
ray had  claimed  the  right  to  appoint.  The  Legislature  denied 
the  claim,  basing  its  action  upon  one  of  its  own  laws,  which 
had  been  tacitly  approved  by  Congress.  The  Utah  courts 
sustained  the  Governor,  deciding  that  his  appointees,  Arthur 
Pratt  and  Bolivar  Roberts,  should  have  the  offices;  and  from 
that  decision  Auditor  Nephi  W.  Clayton  and  Treasurer  James 
Jack,  who  had  been  elected  by  the  people,  appealed  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States.  The  case  of  the  Territorial 
Superintendent  of  Schools,  originally  a  part  of  the  same  con- 
troversy, had  been  eliminated  by  the  Edmunds  Tucker  Act, 
which  abolished  that  office. 

The  Court's  Decree. — It  was  on  the  6th  of  January,  1890, 
that  the  Court  at  Washington  rendered  its  decision,  ruling 
against  the  appellants,  Clayton  and  Jack,  and  affirming  the 
Governor's  right  to  nominate  the  Territorial  Auditor  and 
Treasurer.  The  law  of  1878,  under  which  the  incumbents  were 
elected,  was  held  to  be  in  conflict  with  the  Organic  Act,  and 
therefore  void,  and  in  the  absence  of  action  by  the  Council 
upon  the  Governor's  nominees,  the  latter  were  entitled  to  the 
places.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Pratt  became  Auditor,  and  Mr.  Rob- 
erts Treasurer.  They  recovered  the  salaries  paid  to  the  in- 
cumbents since  the  beginning  of  the  contest.  The  latter,  for 
services  as  de  facto  Auditor  and  Treasurer,  were  subsequently 
reimbursed  by  Legislative  appropriation,  but  the  expense  of 
the  litigation  was  borne  by  themselves. 

Idaho's  Test  Oath  Sustained. — Another  important  issue 
pending  at  Washington  involved  the  validity  of  the  Idaho  test 
oath  law,  by  which  the  "Mormons"  in  that  Territory  had  all 
been  disfranchised.  Under  this  law  electors  were  required 
to  swear  that  they  were  neither  polygamists  nor  members  of 
an  organization  which  taught,  advised,  counseled,  or  encour- 
aged its  members  to  practice  polygamy.  The  final  test  was 
made  in  a  case  entitled  the  People  versus  Samuel  D.  Davis, 


476    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

the  defendant  in  which  had  been  prosecuted  in  the  Third  Dis- 
trict Court  of  Idaho  for  conspiracy.  He  was  not  a  polygamist, 
but  had  taken  the  test  oath  and  procured  registration  as  a 
voter  while  holding  membership  in  the  "Mormon"  Church. 
Haying  been  convicted,  he  was  fined  five  hundred  dollars,  and 
in  default  of  payment  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty  days  in  the  Oneida  County  Jail.  Habeas 
corpus  proceedings  followed,  with  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Nation,  which  heard  the  case  in  December,  1889. 
Counsel  for  the  appellant  contended  that  a  law  making  Church 
membership  a  crime  was  unconstitutional,  invading  the  do- 
main of  conscience  and  making  a  man  an  offender  for  his 
religious  belief.  This  was  met  by  the  argument  that  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  taught  and  practiced  polygamy,  which  was  a 
crime ;  and  that  membership  in  that  Church  was  not  mere 
belief,  but  action,  and  action  was  a  rightful  subject  for  legisla- 
tion. The  Court's  decision,  delivered  by  Mr.  Justice  Field, 
February  3rd,  1890,  affirmed  the  constitutionality  of  the  test 
oath  law.  and  sustained  the  judgment  of  the  lower  court  in 
refusing  to  liberate  the  prisoner  on  habeas  corpus.  In  Utah, 
as  well  as  in  Idaho,  this  ruling  created  a  profound  sensation. 
The  "Mormons"  were  astounded;  the  "Anti-Mormons"  jubi- 
lant. 

An  Exciting  Campaign. — The  news,  flashed  westward, 
found  Salt  Lake  City  in  the  throes  of  a  political  campaign,  the 
most  exciting  that  the  town  had  ever  experienced.  Since  the 
previous  autumn  the  utmost  activity  had  been  shown  by  the 
two  parties  that  were  about  to  contest  at  the  ballot  box  for 
the  official  control  of  the  Utah  capital.  Clubs  were  formed, 
campaign  songs  composed  and  sung,  torch-light  processions 
paraded  the  streets,  and  indoor  and  outdoor  orators  fired  the 
heart  of  the  multitude.  On  either  side  unprecedented  enthusi- 
asm was  awakened.  General  Connor,  "The  Father  of  the 
Liberal  Party,"  was  made  its  nominal  leader  for  this  campaign  ; 
but  the  real  leader  was  Judge  Orlando  W.  Powers,  ex-Associ- 
ate Justice,  brilliant  lawyer  and  orator,  and  one  of  the  ablest 
political  generals  in  the  West.  Judge  Powers  had  been  placed. 
in  charge  of  the  Liberal  forces  at  Salt  Lake  City  soon  after  the 
party's  victory  at  Ogden,  and  he  was  now  looked  to  for  guid- 
ance in  the  most  important  contest  of  its  history.  The  People's 
Party  voters  were  marshaled  under  the  direction  of  Franklin 
S.  Richards  and  Richard  W.  Young,  both  native  sons  of  Utah, 
and  able  members  of  the  bar. 

Registrars  and  Registration. — Registration  of  voters  for 
the  election  began  early  in  November,  1889.  Prior  to  that 
time  the  Utah  Commission  had  appointed  its  chief  clerk,  Henry 
Page,  City  Registrar.  Page  had  for  deputies  in  the  five 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE.  477 

municipal  precincts,  H.  S.  McCallum,  E.  R.  Clute,  J.  R. 
Morris,  R.  D.  Winters,  and  Louis  Hyams,  all  intense  Liberal 
partisans,  four  of  whom — Clute,  Morris,  Winters,  and  Hyams 
—were  about  to  be  placed  upon  the  Liberal  ticket  as  candi- 
dates. The  People's  Party  was  given  no  representation  among 
the  registration  officers. 

Political  Colonization. — Each  side  charged  the  other  with 
attempts  to  colonize  voters;  that  is,  to  induce  people  dwelling 
in  outside  places  to  move  into  the  City  temporarily,  for  the 
purpose  of  registering  and  voting.  It  was  both  charged  and 
proved  that  some  of  the  deputy  registrars  hired  a  special 
train  and  ran  it  on  a  midnight  expedition  down  the  Denver  and 
Rio  Grande  Railroad  as  far  as  the  Colorado  line,  where  non- 
resident section  hands  were  registered  for  the  Salt  Lake  City 
election.  This  exposure  was  made  by  Captain  Bonfield,  former 
Inspector  of  Police  for  Chicago,  who  had  been  employed,  with 
a  force  of  detectives,  to  ferret  out  the  frauds.  Most  of  the 
names  secured  in  the  manner  described  were  afterwards  found 
upon  the  voting  lists  of  the  Second  Precinct,  for  which  E.  R. 
Clute  was  Registrar.  Judge  Powers  repudiated  the  clandes- 
tine expedition,  undertaken  as  he  claimed  during  his  absence 
from  town,  and  he  also  affirmed  that  none  of  the  non-resident 
workingmen  voted  at  the  election. 

Called  to  Account. — The  Registrars  having  been  accused 
of  discriminating  against  voters  of  the  People's  Party,  the 
chairman  of  the  Utah  Commission — then  absent  with  his  asso- 
ciates from  the  Territory — was  communicated  with  by  tele- 
graph and  asked  to  interfere.  Three  of  the  Commissioners 
came  to  Salt  Lake  City  and  heard  complaints  against  the 
Registrars.  At  the  close  of  the  hearing  the  latter  were  en- 
joined to  allow  no  bias,  prejudice,  or  partisanship  to  influence 
their  acts.  The  Commissioners  then  went  their  way,  and  the 
Registrars  pursued  theirs. 

Wells  Versus  Winters. — In  many  instances  People's  Party 
voters,  already  registered,  but  against  whom  gossip  may 
have  wagged  its  tongue,  were  notified  that  unless  they  re- 
qualified  by  again  taking  the  registration  oath,  their  names 
would  be  stricken  from  the  voting  lists.  Among  those  who 
received  this  notification  was  the  future  Governor  of  the  State 
of  Utah,  Heber  M.  Wells,  a  native  born  citizen,  well  known  to 
be  the  husband  of  but  one  wife,  and  a  young  man  of  promi- 
nence holding  the  office  of  City  Recorder.  Mr.  Wells  made 
the  following  reply: 

"Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  December  21,  1889. 
"R.  D.  Winters  Esq.,  Registrar  Fourth  Precinct: 

"Dear  Sir:  I  beg  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  yours  without  date, 
notifying  me  that  owing  to  certain  information  coming  to  you  regard- 


478    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ing  my  disqualification  to  remain  longer  on  the  registry  of  the  Fourth 
Precinct,  you  would  strike  my  name  from  the  list  unless  I  appear  dur- 
ing the  week  commencing  the  23rd  inst.,  and  requalify  by  taking  and 
subscribing  the  oath  anew. 

"I  am  not  advised  as  to  the  character  of  the  information  you  refer 
to,  but  I  now  notify  you  that  any  and  all  information  alleging  or  inti-- 
mating  other  than  that  I  am  a  native  born  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
over  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  qualified  in  every  respect  to  register 
and  vote,  is  utterly  and  totally  false;  and  I  hereby  warn  you  that  if 
you  strike  my  name  from  the  list  upon  any  pretext  whatever,  you  do 
so  at  your  peril,  and  I  -shall  immediately  begin  proceedings  against 
you  to  test  in  the  courts  your  right  to  exercise  what  I  consider  a  high- 
handed and  impertinent  assumption  of  authority. 

"Respectfully, 

"HEBER   M.   WELLS." 

The  warning  proved  effectual ;  Registrar  Winters  making 
no  further  attempt  to  deprive  Mr.  Wells  of  his  right  to  vote. 

Political  Indictments. — Another  card  played  in  this 
shrewd  political  game  was  the  procurement  of  indictments 
against  a  number  of  the  officers  of  Salt  Lake  City  and  County. 
These  indictments,  based  upon  trumped  up  charges,  were 
allowed  to  hang  over  the  defendants — People's  Party  men — 
all  during  the  campaign.  After  the  election,  having  served 
their  purposes,  they  were  dimissed. 

Applications  for  Citizenship. — Many  bona  fide  residents 
had  not  been  naturalized,  and  to  pass  upon  applications  for 
citizenship  Associate  Justice  Anderson  held  special  sessions 
of  court  at  Salt  Lake  City.  "Mormon"  applicants  were  ques- 
tioned as  to  their  belief  in  polygamy,  and  if  they  admitted 
such  a  belief  they  were  objected  to  as  "men  of  immoral  char- 
acter." Inquiries  made  of  other  applicants  concerning  sexual 
practices  outside  the  marriage  relation,  were  characterized  by 
the  objectors  as  "superfluous  and  absurd." 

Allegations  respecting  a  ceremony  which  was  said  to  re- 
quire from  everyone  passing  through  the  Endowment  House 
an  oath  of  hostility  to  the  United  States  Government,  were 
made  the  basis  of  a  contention  that  no  member  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  should  be  admitted  to  citizenship.  To  prove 
these  allegations,  a  deaf  and  partly  daft  old  man  named  Martin 
Wardell  was  put  upon  the  witness  stand.  He  described  what 
purported  to  be  the  "Mormon"  death  penalty,  "Blood  Atone- 
ment," and  told  how  it  was  visited  upon  apostates  and  un- 
friendly "Gentiles."  He  cited  the  case  of  one  William  Green, 
who,  according  to  Wardell,  was  killed  by  "Danites"  in  1862. 
It  proved  to  be  a  figment  of  the  old  man's  imagination — and 
that  he  was  "visionary"  and  "imagined  strange  things,"  his 
own  relatives  testified;  for  the  reported  dead  man  turned  out 
to  be  alive.  Mr.  Green,  who  was  a  fair-minded  "outsider," 
forwarded  from  Spanish  Fork  his  affidavit,  which  of  course 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE.  479 

refuted  the  sensational  story.    But  the  document  did  not  arrive 
until  after  the  close  of  the  proceedings  before  Judge  Anderson. 

Editor  Penrose  Imprisoned. — During  the  examination 
prominent  "Mormons"  testified  that  there  was  nothing  trea- 
sonable or  antagonistic  toward  the  Government  in  the  doc- 
trines of  their  Church,  nor  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Endow- 
ment House.  The  Church  laws  were  only  ecclesiastical,  and 
the  extreme  penalty  inflicted  under  them  was  excommunica- 
tion. For  refusing  to  answer,  as  irrelevant,  the  question : 
"How  many  wives  have  you?"  Editor  Penrose,  of  the  Deseret 
News,  was  charged  with  contempt.  He  did  not  deny  it,  and 
was  sent  to  the  Penitentiary,  where  he  remained  about  a  week, 
and  was  then  given  his  liberty,  the  investigation  having  closed. 

No  "Mormon"  Need  Apply. — Judge  Anderson,  in  a  de- 
cision rendered  on  the  last  day  of  November,  1889,  denied  the 
applications  of  John  Moore  and  Walter  J.  Edgar  for  citizen- 
ship, on  the  ground  that  they  had  been  through  the  Endow- 
ment House  and  had  there  taken  an  oath  of  hostility  to  the 
Government.  Nine  others  were  rejected  because  they  were 
members  of  the  "Mormon"  Church,  though  they  had  never 
been  through  the  Endowment  House,  and  were  not  even  ac- 
cused of  taking  any  disloyal  oath  or  obligation. 

Chief  Justice  Zane,  in  whose  district  the  examination  had 
been  held,  announced  from  the  bench  that  Judge  Anderson's 
decision  would  be  respected  "for  the  present."  It  was  evi- 
dently a  bitter  dose  for  this  naturally  upright  magistrate  to 
swallow.  But  the  "Mormon  Problem"  must  be  solved,  and  i* 
was  therefore  decreed  that  Church  membership,  so  far  as  the 
Latter-day  Saints  were  concerned,  disqualified  aliens  for  citi- 
zenship. 

The  Liberal  Victory. — The  rival  tickets  having  been  nom- 
inated, rousing  ratifications  were  held,  mammoth  spectacular 
parades  adding  to  the  general  interest  felt  over  the  approach- 
ing contest  at  the  polls.  The  election  fell  upon  Monday,  the 
10th  of  February.  The  Liberals  swept  all,  or  nearly  all,  be- 
fore them,  electing  the  Mayor,  Recorder,  Assessor  and  Col- 
lector, Treasurer,  Marshal,  and  most  of  the  Councilmen  and 
Justices  of  the  Peace.  The  People's  Party  carried  two  pre- 
cincts, electing  six  members  of  the  City  Council.  The  Mayor- 
elect,  George  M.  Scott,  merchant,  had  a  majority  of  eight  hun- 
dred and  eight  votes  over  Spencer  Clawson,  the  candidate  of 
the  People.  Judge  Powers,  for  his  efficient  service  in  conduct- 
ing the  campaign,  was  publicly  thanked  by  his  fellow  Liberals 
and  presented  with  a  check  for  ten  thousand  dollars. 

A  Wrong  Righted. — It  had  been  customary  under  the  old 
City  Charter  to  elect  five  Aldermen  and  nine  Councilors,  who 


480    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

were  chosen,  like  the  Mayor  and  other  general  officers,  at 
large.  But  under  a  new  law — the  Municipal  Corporation  Act 
of  1888 — the  City  Council  had  been  made  to  consist  of  fifteen 
Councilmen,  who  were  to  be  chosen  in  their  respective  pre- 
cincts. It  was  this  provision  that  gave  the  People  their  vic- 
tory in  the  Third  and  Fourth  precincts.  When,  however, 
their  six  Councilmen  applied  for  certificates  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Territory  (who  was  also  Secretary  of  the  Utah  Commis- 
sion), he  held  that  the  old  law  had  governed  at  this  election, 
and  that  the  members  of  the  City  Council  had  been  chosen  at 
large.  He  therefore  refused  the  application  of  the  six  Council- 
men— -in  fact,  had  already  given  certificates  to  the  other  candi- 
dates. 

The  District  Court  was  then  appealed  to,  and  Judge  Zane 
evinced  his  usual  willingness  to  right  the  wrong.  Straight- 
way he  ordered  the  issuance  of  a  peremptory  writ  of  mandate, 
requiring  Secretary  Sells  to  furnish  the  certificates  to  the  men 
whom  the  voters  had  chosen.  But  an  appeal  was  taken  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory,  and  meanwhile  the  new  City 
Government  was  organized;  the  defeated  Liberals  being  sworn 
in  with  the  others.  "The  law's  delay,"  if  not  "the  insolence  of 
office,"  kept  them  in  place  during  the  greater  part  of  the  term 
for  which  their  opponents  had  been  elected.  Eventually,  how- 
ever, the  usurpers  were  ousted,  and  the  right  men  installed, 
pursuant  to  the  Supreme  Court  decision.  The  men  elected 
were  Richard  W.  Young,  W.  J.  Tuddenham,  J.  Fewson  Smith, 
Oscar  H.  Hardy,  Frank  H.  Hyde,  and  Eli  A.  Folland. 

The  Free  School  System.— In  March,  1890,  the  Legislature 
enacted  a  law  providing  for  a  uniform  system  of  free  schools 
throughout  Utah.  This  law  consolidated  into  one  school  dis- 
trict every  city  of  the  first  class,  or  those  having  a  population 
of  over  twenty  thousand ;  and  every  city  of  the  second  class, 
or  those  having  a  population  between  five  thousand  and  twenty 
thousand.  Salt  Lake,  the  only  city  of  the  first  class,  had  con- 
sisted of  twenty-two  school  districts,  each  controlled  by  its 
own  board.  These  twenty-two  districts  now  became  one,  with 
the  power  to  elect  two  trustees  from  each  municipal  ward; 
and  these,  with  the  Mayor  as  ex-officio  chairman,  were  to  con- 
stitute the  School  Board. 

"A  Rascal  and  a  Wretch."— At  the  first  free  school  elec- 
tion, held  in  July  of  that  year,  the  Liberals  carried  four  of  the 
five  Salt  Lake  City  precincts,  electing  a  majority  of  the  Board 
of  Education.  Their  victory  in  the  Fourth  Precinct,  however, 
was  the  result  of  a  gross  fraud — the  deliberate  substitution  of 
Liberal  ballots  for  People's  ballots  by  one  of  the  judges  of 
election,  thus  causing  the  defeat  of  Richard  W.  Young,  whose 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE.  481 

office  went  to  his  opponent.  The  person  immediately  respon- 
sible for  this  piece  of  rascality  was  a  Colorado  man,  William 
J.  Allen,  one  of  an  army  of  transients  who  had  recently  drifted 
into  Utah.  Proofs  of  his  guilt  having  been  obtained,  he  was 
arrested  and  examined  before  United  States  Commissioner 
Greenman,  who  discharged  him  on  the  ground  that  the  evi- 
dence was  not  strong  enough  to  warrant  his  detention. 

Judge  Zane  thought  differently.  The  matter  came  before 
him  in  a  suit  instituted  by  Captain  Young  for  the  recovery  of 
the  office  out  of  which  he  had  been  defrauded.  The  Judge, 
having  heard  the  arguments,  decided  that  Young  was  elected. 
He  then  called  the  attention  of  the  Grand  Jury  to  the  conduct 
of  Allen,  whom  he  termed  "a  rascal  and  a  wretch"  who  had 
attempted  "to  overthrow  the  expression  of  the  people's  will," 
thereby  committing  "a  crime  akin  to  treason."  He  also,  urged 
the  Grand  Jury  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  H.  S.  McCallum, 
ex-deputy  registrar,  who  had  caused  Allen  to  be  chosen  a  judge 
of  election.  Allen  was  indicted  and  tried,  but  escaped  con- 
viction, and  immediately  left  the  Territory.  McCallum  was 
not  called  to  account,  except  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion. 
Captain  Young  secured  his  office,  and  served  as  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Education. 

People  and  Workingmen. — In  August  of  the  same  year 
the  Liberals  carried  Salt  Lake  County,  though  not  with  a 
complete  victory;  a  combination  of  People's  partisans,  and  In- 
dependent Workingmen  electing  the  Recorder,  Sheriff,  and 
Treasurer.  Andrew  J.  Burt's  majority  for  Sheriff  was  two 
hundred,  he  having  run  ahead  of  his  ticket.  The  fight  was 
closer  for  Recorder  and  Treasurer,  and  the  men  elected,  John 
H.  Rumel,  Jr.  and  Joseph  B.  Toronto,  secured  their  places  only 
after  a  contest  in  the  courts  and  a  ruling  by  the  Utah  Com- 
mission. Frauds  were  charged  at  Bingham  and  South  Cotton- 
wood,  but  the  election  result  remained  unaffected  thereby. 

Box  Elder  and  Weber  Controversies. — At  Bri-gham  City 
some  friction  arose  over  the  appointment,  by  the  County  Reg- 
istrar, of  three  candidates  for  office  as  judges  of  election.  The 
Utah  Commission  had  winked  at  the  use  of  prospective  candi- 
dates as  registrars  in  Salt  Lake  City,  but  now  it  thought  best 
to  interpose,  pursuant  to  a  rule  recently  established  by  itself, 
forbidding  such  procedure.  Accordingly,  the  Board  appointed 
a  new  set  of  judges  to  supersede  those  already  selected.  The 
latter  refused  to  give  way,  and  the  new  appointees  opened 
another  poll  in  the  same  building;  the  voters,  to  be  secure, 
casting  their  ballots  at  both  places.  Each  set  of  judges  sent 
certified  returns  to  the  Commission,  but  owing  to  the  rejection 

30 


482    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

of  certain  votes  at  one  poll,  and  their  acceptance  at  the  other, 
the  figures  did  not  agree.  It  was  decided  that  the  legal  re- 
turns were  those  from  the  judges  last  appointed.  This  ruling 
saved  Box  Elder  County  to  the  People.  The  Weber  County 
returns  were  called  in  question  by  Daniel  Hamer,  People's 
candidate  for  Recorder,  who  alleged  that  votes  cast  for  him 
had  been  counted  for  his  opponent,  John  G.  Tyler.  A  recount 
of  the  ballots  was  asked  for,  but  the  request  was  denied  by  the 
Commission,  Tyler  receiving  the  certificate  of  election. 

A  Final  Battle. — Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  the 
Liberal  and  People's  parties  were  arrayed  against  each 
other  on  a  political  battlefield.  It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1890, 
when  Delegate  Caine  was  again  put  forward  by  the  People 
for  a  seat  in  Congress.  The  Liberal  standard-bearer  was 
Judge'  Goodwin,  the  veteran  editor  of  the  Tribune.  The  cam- 
paign ended  in  Caine's  victory. 

Proposed  Disfranchisement. — The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  having  decreed  the  Idaho  test  oath  law  consti- 
tutional, the  "Anti-Mormon"  politicians  were  encouraged  to 
frame  a  similar  statute  for  Utah.  It  would  have  been  futile, 
of  course,  to  follow  the  Idaho  plan  too  closely  and  introduce 
such  a  measure  in  the  Legislature,  a  great  majority  of  whose 
members  were  "Mormons."  The  purpose  was  to  have  the  law 
enacted  by  Congress.  The  framer  of  the  bill — Judge  Baskin 
— was  chosen  to  carry  it  to  Washington.  He  reached  his 
destination  early  in  April,  1890. 

The  Cullom-Struble  Bill.— A  few  days  later  the  disfran- 
chisement  measure  was  introduced  in  the  Senate.  It  provided 
ihat  no  person  living  in  plural  marriage,  or  who  taught  polyg- 
amy, or  was  a  member  or  contributed  to  the  support  of  any 
organization  that  advised  or  encouraged  the  practice,  or  who 
assisted  in  the  solemnization  of  plural  marriages,  should  vote, 
serve  as  a  juror,  or  hold  office  in  Utah.  A  test  oath  was  in- 
corporated requiring  each  elector  to  swear  that  he  was  not  a 
polygamist,  would  never  become  one,  would  never  advise,  aid, 
or  abet  any  person  in  the  practice  of  polygamy,  and  was  not 
a  member  of  any  organization  that  taught  or  encouraged  the 
practice.  This  bill  was  presented  by  Senator  Cullom  of  Illi- 
nois, and  became  known  as  the  Cullom  Bill,  the  second  of  its 
name  in  Utah  annals.  Next  day  a  precisely  similar  measure 
was  presented  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Struble  of  Iowa.  Both 
bills  were  referred  to  appropriate  committees,  and  by  them 
favorably  reported;  not,  however,  before  Delegate  Caine  and 
his  colleagues  had  led  a  gallant  fight  against  them. 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE. 


483 


Governor  Thomas  on  the  Situation. — About  the  middle  of 
May  Goverior  Thomas  returned  from  Washington,  where  he, 
with  Ex-Governor  West,  had  been  working  in  the  intefest  of 
a  Federal  Building  for  the  Territory.  In  a  press  interview, 
the  Governor  stated  that  the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Last 
Resort  in  the  Idaho  disfranchisement  case  had  been  accepted 
by  leading  members  of  Congress  as  the  solution  of  the  Utah 
problem,  and  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Cullom-Struble 
bill  would  probably  become  a  law. 

Conservative  "Gentile"  Opposition. — That  a  majority  of 
the  "Gentiles"  wanted  the  "Mormons"  disfranchised,  may  well 
be  doubted ;  and  that  a  very  in- 
fluential class  among  them  was 
opposed  to  the  radical  proposi- 
tion, soon  became  apparent. 
This  class  came  out  in  pro- 
nounced antagonism  to  Judge 
Baskin's  pet  measure,  the  en- 
actment of  which  would  have 
widened  the  gulf  between  the 
two  social  elements  and  dealt 
a  death  blow  to  the  material  in- 
terests of  the  Territory.  Such  a 
consideration  had  weight  with 
those  who  had  been  investing 
heavily  in  real  estate  and  in 
various  commercial  and  indus- 
trial enterprises.  Hundreds  of 
"Gentile"  business  men,  with 
officers  and  soldiers  at  Fort 
Douglas,  signed  a  petition  ask- 
ing Congress  not  to  pass  the 
obnoxious  bill.  One  of  the  sig- 
natories was  Fred  Simon,  Vice- 
President  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Chamber  of  Commerce. 


FRED  SIMON. 


Ex-Delegate  Cannon  at  Washington. — Among  those  who 
went  to  Washington  to  work  for  the  defeat  of  the  disfranchise- 
ment legislation,  was  President  George  Q.  Cannon,  who  still 
retained  much  of  the  influence  exerted  by  him  among  Con- 
gressmen in  former  years  while  serving  as  Utah's  Delegate. 
He  was  accompanied  by  his  son,  Frank  J.  Cannon,  also  by 
Bishop  H.  B.  Clawson,  and  Colonel  Isaac  Trumbo.  The  Ex- 
Delegate  had  as  one  of  his  personal  friends  Honorable  James 
G.  Blaine,  Secretary  of  State,  and  recognized  leader  of  the 
National  Republican  Party. 


484    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

In  the  Court  of  Last  Resort. — For  more  than  a  year  the 
Federal  Supreme  Court  had  had  under  advisement  the  Church 
property  suits,  the  arguments  in  which  were  made  during  Jan- 
uary, 1889.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Utah  had  declared  the 
property,  personal  and  real,  with  the  exception  of  Temple 
Block,  forfeited  and  escheated  to  the  Government,  and  an  ap- 
peal from  that  decision  had  been  taken  with  a  view  to  testing 
the  constitutionality  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Act,  particularly 
the  part  dissolving  the  Church  corporation  and  confiscating 
its  property.  The  ground  of  appeal  was  that  Congress,  a  law- 
making  body,  had  wrongfully  assumed  judicial  powers;  that 
the  act  of  the  Legislature  incorporating  the  Church  was  a  con- 
tract, which  could  not  rightfully  be  impaired,  and  that  the 
doctrine  of  escheat  was  alien  to  the  spirit  of  American  institu- 
tions. On  the  part  of  the  Government  it  was  maintained  that 
Congress  had  authority  to  repeal  all  Territorial  enactments; 
that  the  law  incorporating  the  Church  was  invalid,  as  it  at- 
tempted, contrary  to  the  Constitution,  to  establish  a  religion; 
that  the  charter  should  be  annulled  for  the  abuse  of  granted 
rights;  and  that  when  a  church  corporation  was  dissolved, 
there  being  no  one  to  whom  the  property  could  revert,  it  was 
therefore  escheated  to  the  Government.  This  decision  did  not 
affect  the  property  belonging  to  the  Stakes  of  Zion,  the  dis- 
tribution of  which  by  the  Trustee-in-Trust  to  the  various 
Stake  Associations,  held  good  in  law. 

Escheat  and  Forfeiture  Confirmed. — On  the  19th  of  May, 
1890,  the  Supreme  Court,  by  Mr.  Justice  Bradley,  asserted  the 
constitutionality  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Act  and  confirmed 
the  decree  of  escheat  and  forfeiture.  The  Court  held  that 
Congress,  having  supreme  authority  over  the  Territory  of 
Utah,  had  power  to  revoke  the  charter  of  the  "Mormon" 
Church  and  cause  its  property  to  be  seized  and  held  for  final 
disposition.  The  Government  might  prohibit  polygamy,  arid 
property  used  for  promoting  that  unlawful  practice  should  be 
applied,  under  the  direction  of  the  courts  or  of  the  supreme 
power  in  the  state,  to  other  charitable  objects  corresponding 
as  nearly  as  might  be  to  the  original  intention  of  the 
donors. 

The  opinion  was  that  of  a  majority  of  the  Court,  Chief 
Justice  Fuller  and  Justices  Field  and  Lamar  dissenting.  They 
held  that  Congress  had  the  power  to  suppress  polygamy,  but 
not  to  seize  and  confiscate  the  property  of  a  corporation  be- 
cause its  members  might  have  been  guilty  of  crime.  A  rehear- 
ing, requested  by  the  appellants,  was  denied,  but  a  postpone- 
ment was  ordered  until  the  October  term,  the  case  being  re- 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE. 


485 


served  by  the  Court  for  further  consideration  as  to  the  modifi- 
cation of  the  decree. 

The  Personal  Property  Question. — Congressmen  now  be- 
gan racking  their  brains  for  the  best  method  of  disposing  of 
the  confiscated  property.  What  was  to  be  done  with  the  real 
estate,  the  law  plainly  indicated ;  but  how  to  dispose  of  the 
personal  property  was  not  so  clear.  Senator  Edmunds  came 
forward  with  a  bill  to  authorize  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
to  make  the  same  disposition  of  the  personalty  as  of  the  realty, 
that  is,  to  devote  it  to  the  benefit  of  the  common  schools.  This 
bill  passed  the  Senate.  The  Vermont  statesman  also  reported 
a  measure  to  reorganize  the 
government  of  Utah,  reappor- 
tion  the  Legislative  representa- 
tion, vacate  the  Territorial  and 
County  offices,  and  give  the 
Governor  appointive  power  in 
relation  to  the  same. 

What  of  the  Outcome?— 
Such  was  the  posture  of  affairs 
in  the  summer  of  1890.  What 
would  be  the  outcome,  was  the 
question  agitating  all  Utah. 
The  disposal  of  the  Church 
property  was  not  uppermost  in 
the  minds  of  the  people.  "Are 
the  Mormons  to  be  disfran- 
chised?" was  the  main  ques- 
tion. Efforts  for  and  against 
the  pending  legislation  contin- 
ued to  be  made,  and  so  the 
summer  months  went  by. 

Elaine's  Intervention. — The 
Cullom-Struble  Bill  was  not 
rushed  through  Congress  as 
the  Edmunds  Bill  had  been;  a 

fact  owing,  it  is  said,  to  the  silent  though  potent  influence  of 
Secretary  Blaine.  The  great  political  leader  was  convinced 
of  the  impolicy  of  the  proposed  legislation.  Having  been  as- 
sured that  Utah  was  not  "hopelessly  Democratic ;"  that  many 
of  her  people  cherished  Republican  principles — notably  protec- 
tion— and  that  this  element  might  yet  make  of  the  Territory  a 
Republican  State,  "the  Plumed  Knight"  called  a  halt  upon  the 
radicals  of  his  party  in  Congress  who  were  bent  upon  pushing 


SECRETARY   BLAINE. 


486    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


PRESIDENT    WOODRUFF. 


through  the  measure  threaten- 
ing the  liberties  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" people.  His  powerful 
hand  was  interposed,  however, 
with  the  understanding  that 
something  would  be  done  in 
Utah  to  meet  the  situation. 

The  Manifesto.  —  That 
"something"  was  the  "Wood- 
ruff Manifesto,"  whereby  the 
venerable  head  of  the  "Mor- 
mon" Church  made  known  his 
intention  of  submitting  to  the 
laws  of  Congress  enacted 
against  plural  marriage,  and 
using  his  influence  with  the 
Latter-day  Saints  to  have  them 
do  the  same.  The  document, 
issued  on  the  25th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1890,  received  its  formal 
ratification  by  the  Church  in 
General  Conference  on  the  6th 
of  October.  The  full  text  of 
"The  Manifesto"  follows : 


"OFFICIAL  DECLARATION. 
"To  Whom  it  May  Concern: 

"Press  dispatches  having  been  sent  for  political  purposes  from 
Salt  Lake  City,  which  have  been  widely  published,  to  the  effect  that 
the  Utah  Commission,  in  their  recent  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  allege  that  plural  marriages  are  still  being  solemnized,  and 
that  forty  or  more  such  marriages  have  been  contracted  in  Utah  since 
last  June  or  during  the  past  year;  also  that  in  public  discourses  the 
leaders  of  the  Church  have  taught,  encouraged,  and  urged  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  practice  of  polygamy; 

"I,  therefore,  as  President  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  do  hereby,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  declare  that  these 
charges  are  false.  We  are  not  teaching  polygamy  or  plural  marriage, 
nor  permitting  any  person  to  enter  into  its  practice,  and  I  deny  that 
either  forty  or  any  other  number  of  plural  marriages  have  during  that 
period  been  solemnized  in  our  temples  or  in  any  other  place  in  the 
Territory. 

"One  case  has  been  reported  in  Which  the  parties  alleged  that  the 
marriage  was  performed  in  the  Endowment  House,  in  Salt  Lake  City, 
in  the  spring  of  1889,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  who  performed 
the  ceremony.  Whatever  was  done  in  this  matter  was  without  my 
knowledge.  In  consequence  of  this  alleged  occurrence,  the  Endow- 
ment House  was,  by  my  instructions,  taken  down  without  delay. 

"Inasmuch  as  laws  have  been  enacted  by  Congress,  forbidding 
plural  marriages,  which  laws  have  been  pronounced  constitutional  by 
the  Court  of  Last  Resort,  I  hereby  declare  my  intention  to  submit  to 
those  laws,  and  to  use  my  influence  with  the  members  of  the  Church 
over  which  I  preside  to  have  them  do  likewise. 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE.  487 

"There  is  nothing  in  my  teachings  to  the  Church,  or  in  those  of 
my  associates,  during  the  time  specified,  which  can  be  reasonably  con- 
strued to  inculcate  or  encourage  polygamy,  and  when  any  Elder  of 
the  Church  has  used  language  which  appeared  to  convey  any  such 
teaching,  he  has  been  promptly  reproved.  And  I  now  publicly  declare 
that  my  advice  to  the  Latter-day  Saints  is  to  refrain  from  contracting 
any  marriage  forbidden  by  the  law  of  the  land. 

"WILFORD   WOODRUFF, 
"President  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints." 

Accepted  by  the  Church. — Just  before  the  Manifesto  was 
presented  to  the  assembled  thousands  at  the  Tabernacle,  Presi- 
dent Woodruff  requested  one  of  the  Bishops  (the-  present 
writer)  to  read  to  the  congregation  the  Church's  Articles  of 
Faith.  They  were  read  accordingly.  The  parts  most  per- 
tinent to  the  occasion  were  these: 

"6.  We  believe  in  the  same  organization  that  existed  in  the  prim- 
itive Church,  viz.,  apostles,  prophets,  pastors,  teachers,  evangelists, 
etc." 

"9.  We  believe  all  that  God  has  revealed,  all  that  He  does  now 
reveal,  and  we  believe  that  He  will  yet  reveal  many  great  and  im- 
portant things  pertaining  to  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

"11.  We  claim  the  privilege  of  worshiping  Almighty  God  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  our  conscience,  and  allow  all  men  the  same  priv- 
ilege, let  them  worship  how,  where,  or  what  they  may." 

"12.  We  believe  in  being  subject  to  kings,  presidents,  rulers  and 
magistrates,  in  obeying,  honoring  and  sustaining  the  law." 

The  Articles  of  Faith  were  sustained  as  the  rule  of  con- 
duct for  the  Church,  a  motion  to  that  end  having  been  made 
by  Elder  Franklin  D.  Richards,  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 
The  Manifesto  was  then  read  to  the  people  in  like  manner,  and 
another  of  the  Apostles — Elder  Lorenzo  Snow — supplemented 
the  reading  with  this  motion :  "I  move  that,  recognizing  Wil- 
ford  Woodruff  as  the  President  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Latter-day  Saints,  and  the  only  man  on  the  earth  at  the 
present  time  who  holds  the  keys  of  the  sealing  ordinances,  we 
consider  him  fully  authorized,  by  virtue  of  his  position,  to  issue 
the  Manifesto  which  has  been  read  in  our  hearing,  and  which 
is  dated  September  25,  1890,  and  that  as  a  Church  in  General 
Conference  assembled,  we  accept  his  declaration  concerning 
plural  marriages  as  authoritative  and  binding."  The  vote  to 
sustain  the  motion  was  unanimous. 

Expressions  from  the  Presidency. — President  George  Q. 
Cannon  then  addressed  the  congregation.  In  explanation  of 
the  issuance  of  the  Manifesto,  he  quoted  the  following  para- 
graph from  the  Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants  :* 

*The  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  containing  the  revelations  to  the 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith,  is  one  of  four  books  accepted  as  doctrinal 
standards  by  the  Latter-day  Saints.  The  other  standards  are  the 
Bible,  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  the  Pearl  of  Great  Price. 


488    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  when  I  give  a  com- 
mandment to  any  of  the  sons  of  men,  to  do  a  work  unto  My 
name,  and  those  sons  of  men  go  with  all  their  might,  and  with 
all  they  have,  to  perform  that  work,  and  cease  not  their  dili- 
gence, and  their  enemies  come  upon  them  and  hinder  them 
from  performing  that  work ;  behold,  it  behoveth  Me  to  require 
that  work  no  more  at  the  hands  of  those  sons  of  men,  but  to 
accept  of  their  offerings." 

It  was  upon  this  basis,  the  speaker  said,  that  President 
Woodruff  had  felt  justified  in  issuing  the  Manifesto.  Presi- 
dent Cannon  reviewed  the  history  of  the  anti-polygamy  legis- 
lation, and  referred  to  the  sacrifices  made  by  the  Latter-day 
Saints  for  the  sake  of  the  principle  involved — sacrifices  that 
had  not  been  in  vain  and  that  testified  to  the  sincerity  and  con- 
scientiousness of  those  who  had  made  them.  The  First  Presi- 
dency had  been  appealed  to  many  times  by  leading  brethren 
of  the  Church,  to  put  forth  such  a  declaration  as  this — espe- 
cially since  plural  marriages  ceased,  and  in  order  that  the 
Church  might  derive  the  benefit  that  would  result  from  the 
announcement;  but  not  until  the  25th  of  September  did  the 
Lord  move  upon  President  Woodruff  to  take  action  in  the  mat- 
ter. The  time  had  come  when  it  seemed  necessary  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  country 
and  save  the  people.  It  was  the  duty  of  all  Latter-day  Saints 
to  submit  to  this  expression  of  the  mind  and  will  of  the  Al- 
mighty. 

President  Woodruff  followed  his  First  Counselor,  saying: 
"The  step  which  I  have  taken  in  issuing  this  Manifesto  has 
not  been  done  without  earnest  prayer  before  the  Lord.  *  *  * 
To  have  taken  a  stand  in  anything  which  is  not  pleasing  in  the 
sight  of  God — I  would  rather  have  gone  out  and  been  shot. 
*  *  *  I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  feelings  that  have  been  en- 
gendered through  the  course  I  have  pursued.  But  I  have  done 
my  duty,  and  the  nation  of  which  we  form  a  part  must  be  re- 
sponsible for  that  which  has  been  done  in  relation  to  this  prin- 
ciple." The  President  went  on  to  say  that  the  Lord  had  re- 
quired many  things  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  that  they  had 
been  prevented  from  doing,  mentioning,  in  particular,  the  re- 
quirement to  build  temples  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri,  and 
at  Far  West,  in  that  State.  He  then  added  :  "It  is  not  wisdom 
for  us  to  go  forth  and  carry  out  this  principle  against  the  laws 
of  the  nation.  *  *  *  The  Lord  has  given  us  command- 
ments concerning  many  things,  and  we  have  carried  them  out 
as  far  as  we  could ;  but  when  we  cannot  do  it,  we  are  justified. 
The  Lord  does  not  require  at  our  hands  things  that  we  can- 
not do.  *  *  *  The  Lord  will  never  permit  me  nor  any 
other  man  who  stands  as  the  President  of  this  Church  to  lead 


THE  END  OF  A  CYCLE.  489 

you  astray.  It  is  not  in  the  program.  It  is  not  in  the  mind  of 
God.  If  I  were  to  attempt  that,  the  Lord  would  move  me  out 
of  my  place." 

The  Question  of  Sincerity.— The  effect  of  the  "Mormon" 
President's  official  utterance  upon  those  most  favorable  to  the 
disfranchisement  legislation,  was  quite  dispiriting.  It  came  as 
a  surprise — almost  as  a  shock  to  them.  They  at  once  ques- 
tioned the  sincerity  of  the  declaration,  denouncing  it  as  a 
sham,  a  trick  to  deceive  the  Nation  and  gain  a  temporary  ad- 
vantage. Many  of  the  "Anti-Mormons"  continued  to  make 
this  assertion  long  after  the  conservative  "Gentiles"  had  ac- 
cepted the  Manifesto  as  sincere. 

One  of  the  first  to  recognize  it  as  genuine,  and  allow  it  to 
influence  his  official  course,  was  Chief  Justice  Zane.  He  had 
repeatedly  expressed  the  wish  that  the  President  of  the  Church 
would  issue  such  a  statement,  and  now  that  it  had  come, 
he  was  glad,  and  received  it  in  good  faith.  The  day  after 
its  ratification  by  the  Conference,  Judge  Zane,  while  examin- 
ing in  court  certain  applicants  for  citizenship,  remarked: 
"Hereafter  I  will  not  make  the  simple  fact  that  an  applicant  is 
a  member  of  the.  'Mormon'  Church  a  bar  to  his  admission." 
Judge  Anderson  was  not  so  soon  converted,  but  eventually  he 
took  the  same  ground,  sustaining  the  Chief  Justice  in  his  mod- 
ified attitude. 

The  Question  of  Scope. — About  a  year  after  the  date  of 
the  Manifesto,  the  question  of  its  scope,  as  affecting  not  only 
polygamous  marriages,  but  also  the  continuance  of  polyg- 
amous living  was  made  the  subject  of  a  searching  inquiry 
before  Judge  C.  F.  Loofbourow,  at  Salt  Lake  City.  In  expla- 
nation of  this  action,  it  should  be  known  that  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  had  decided  that  all  Church  prop- 
erty in  the  hands  of  the  Receiver  should  remain  there  pend- 
ing further  action  by  the  Utah  courts,  and  Judge  Loofbourow 
had  been  appointed  a  Master  in  Chancery,  to  take  testimony 
and  determine  the  uses  to  which  the  escheated  property  might 
best  be  applied.  The  Receiver  at  that  time  was  Henry  W.  Law- 
rence, who  had  succeeded  Marshal  Dyer  as  Government  cus- 
todian of  the  property.*  The  hearing  before  the  Master  in 
Chancery  took  place  in  October,  1891.  Among  the  witnesses 
examined  were  Presidents  Woodruff,  Cannon  and  Smith,  and 
Elders  Lorenzo  Snow  and  Anthon  H.  Lund,  of  the  Council  of 
the  Twelve.  According  to  their  testimony,  the  Manifesto 
enjoined  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  land  enacted  against 

*Marshal  Dyer  resigned  the  Receivership  July  14,  1890,  and  Mr. 
Lawrence  was  appointed  two  days  later.  The  latter  was  succeeded 
bv  Leonard  G.  Hardy,  Bishop  of  the  Second  Ward,  Salt  Lake  City, 
who  received  his  appointment  November  12,  1892. 


490    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

plural  marriage,  both  as  to  the  ceremony  and  the  cohabitation 
thereunder. 

A  Sentiment  of  Toleration. — Cases  of  unlawful  cohabita- 
tion continued  to  be  prosecuted  as  fast  as  they  came  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Government  officers.  But  gradually  a  senti- 
ment grew — and  it  was  shared  by  all  classes  of  the  community 
— that  men  who  had  married  polygamously  before  the  date  of 
the  Manifesto,  should  not  be  interfered  with  for  living  with 
their  plural  families  while  caring  for  and  supporting  them. 
No  more  polygamous  marriages  were  to  be  entered  into,  but 
time  was  to  be  given  for  plural  relationships  already  existing 
to  pass  away  by  natural  processes,  and  men  involved  in  such 
relations  were  not  to  be  compelled  to  desert  their  wives  and 
children  and  cast  them  adrift.  This  was  the  general  under- 
standing among  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles."  Even  the  "Anti- 
Mormons"  acquiesced  in  the  non-prosecution  of  such  cases, 
and  favored  a-  tolerant  policy  in  relation  to  them.  Conse- 
quently such  prosecutions  ceased. 

General  Effect  of  the  Manifesto. — No  event  in  the  history 
of  the  commonwealth  has  been  more  prolific  of  results  than 
the  issuance  of  the  Manifesto.  One  source  of  the  all  but  in- 
cessant strife,  one  great  obstacle  to  the  admission  of  the  Ter- 
ritory into  the  Union,  was  at  length  removed.  The  Cullom- 
Struble  bill  failed  to  pass;  Utah  continued  free;  and  "Mor- 
mons" and  "Gentiles,"  joining  hands,  began  to  work  unitedly 
for  Statehood. 


OLD    CITY    HALL,    SALT   LAKE    CITY. 


XXXIII. 

PREPARING  FOR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

1890-1895. 

National  Party  Lines. — The  time  now  seemed  propitious 
for  organizing  in  Utah  the  Demoncratic  and  Republican 
parties.  Since  1872  they  had  maintained  a  shadowy  sort  of 
existence  in  the  Territory,  but  beyond  sending  delegates  to 
and  keeping  in  touch  with  the  great  political  gatherings  held 
in  various  parts  of  the  country,  they  had  accomplished  little  or 
nothing.  Most  of  the  citizens,  Republicans  or  Democrats  by 
tradition,  were  arrayed  against  each  other  on  strictly  local 
lines,  and  general  politics  were  practically  ignored.  The 
triumph  of  the  National  Democracy,  in  1884,  rolled  a  wave 
of  enthusiasm  over  Utah,  the  majority  of  whose  inhabitants 
were  Democratic  in  their  sympathies,  and,  as  already  shown, 
certain  members  of  that  party  organized  a  club  and  started 
a  paper.  But  this  effort  soon  spent  its  force.  Four  years 
later  "The  Sagebrush  Democracy"  launched  its  vigorous  but 
short-lived  movement.  Meanwhile  the  local  strife  continued, 
the  Liberals  gradually  making  headway  in  a  few  towns  and 
counties,  and  the  people,  whenever  the  fight  was  general, 
sweeping:  away  all  opposition.  Now,  however,  a  decisive 
change  had  come,  and  it  was  felt  on  both  sides  that  these 
parties  should  disband.  Having  fulfilled  their  mission,  they 
stood  in  the  way  of  progress. 

Utah  Democrats. — This  sentiment,  even  before  the  issu- 
ance of  the  Manifesto,  had  led  to  the  organization  of  a  Demo- 
cratic Club,  which  had  its  first  meeting  in' April  or  May,  1890, 
at  the  office  of  United  States  Marshal  Dyer.  "Mormons"  as 
well  as  "Gentiles"  were  present,  and  Colonel  H.  C.  Lett  acted 
as  chairman.  The  subject  of  disbanding  home  parties  and 
introducing  the  national  alignments  was  discussed,  and  a  com- 
mittee appointed  to  further  agitate  the  question.  On  the  10th 
of  May,  at  an  open  air  meeting  held  under  the  auspices  of  this 
club,  a  memorial  was  adopted  denouncing  the  Cullom-Struble 
bill,  and  demanding  fair  treatment  and  truthful  reports  from 
the  Associated  Press  upon  local  affairs.  As  a  result  of  this 
agitation,  the  Democratic  Party  of  Utah  came  into  existence 
during  the  spring  and  summer  of  1891. 

President  Harrison's  Visit. — Early  in  that  year  President 
Benjamin  Harrison  paid  the  Territory  a  visit.  He  was  re- 
turning from  California  and  the  Northwest,  after  a  tour  of  the 
Nation,  and  spent  a  day — Saturday,  May  9th, — at  Salt 'Lake 
City.  He  had  been  met  at  Pocatello,  Idaho,  by  Governor 
Thomas,  Delegate  Caine,  and  other  citizens,  who  escorted  him 


492    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


PRESIDENT   HARRISON. 


to  the  Utah  capital.  Included  in  the  President's  party  was 
his  wife,  also  Postmaster  General  Wanamaker,  Secretary 
Rusk,  and  other  persons  of  prominence.  Their  special  train 

reached  Salt  Lake  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  The  town  was  in  gala 
attire,  to  welcome  the  Chief  Magis- 
trate. After  an  informal  reception 
at  the  Walker  House,  and  the  pres- 
entation to  President  Harrison,  by 
Governor  Thomas,  in  behalf  of  the 
people,  of  a  silver  tray  made  of  metal 
from  the  Ontario  Mine,  a  proces- 
sion was  formed  to  accompany  the 
visitors  to  Liberty  Park,  where  a 
program  of  speeches  and  music  was 
to  be  rendered. 

"And  a  Little  Child  Shall  Lead 
Them." — The  procession,  after  leav- 
ing Main  Street,  was  passing  up 
South  Temple,  and  had  arrived  op- 
posite B  Street,  when  a  vision  of 
beauty  burst  upon  the  view.  Cov- 
ering the  gently  sloping  hillside  for  more  than  a  block,  stood 
an  army  of  school  children,  six  or  seven  thousand  in  number, 
all  tastefully  attired,  each  waving  a  tiny  American  Flag,  and 
cheering  for  the  President  of  the  United  States.  The  proces- 
sion halted,  and  Harrison  stood  with  uncovered  head,  while 
the  little  ones  sang  "America"  and  "The  Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner," keeping-  time  to  the  music  with  their  flagrs.  In  a  voice 
tremulous  with  emo.tion,  the  President  then  addressed  them : 

"Children,  in  all  our  pleasant  journeyings  through  the 
sunny  South — the  land  of  flowers — and  amidst  the  joyous 
greetings  of  loyal  people  throughout  our  free  and  venerated 
country,  we  have  witnessed  nothing  so  extremely  lovely  as 
this  inspiring  and  unexpected  sight.  Such  perfect  arrange- 
ment, such  beautiful  singing,  such  concerted  action  of^an 
almost  numberless  multitude  of  children,  waving  a  forest  of 
banners  emblematical  of  independence  and  liberty,  present  a 
picture  and  offer  a  welcome  that  the  lapse  of  time  will  not 
erase  from  our  memories.  You,  children  from  the  schools 
established  and  guarded  by  your  public  authorities,  are  fitting 
yourselves  for  usefulness,  citizenship,  and  patriotism  (here 
the  speaker  was  interrupted  by  three  hearty  cheers  from  the 
children) — and  in  you  lies  the  hope  of  Utah  and  the  glory 
of  our  country.  In  conclusion,  I  thank  you  for  this  feeling 
demonstration,  and  invoke  the  choicest  blessings  of  a  benef- 
icent country  and  a  still  more  beneficent  Creator  upon  you," 


PREPARING  FOR  SOVEREIGNTY.  493 

At  Liberty  Park. — At  the  Park  President  Harrison,  Secre- 
tary Rusk,  and  General  Wanamaker  addressed  the  people. 
Upon  the  recent  admission  into  the  Union  of  North  and  South 
Dakota,  Washington,  Montana,  Idaho  and  Wyoming,  the 
Chief  Magistrate  expressed  himself  in  glowing  terms.  He 
then  spoke  of  Utah's  prospects  for  Statehood,  and  said :  "I 
have  no  discord  as  a  public  officer  with  men  of  any  creed,  re- 
ligious or  political,  if  they  will  obey  the  law.  My  oath  of 
office,  my  public  duty,  requires  me  to  be  against  those  who 
violate  it.  *  *  *  The  foundation  of  American  life  is  the 
American  home.  That  which  characterizes  and  separates  us 
from  nations  whose  political  experience  and  history  have  been 
full  of  strife  and  discord,  is  the  American  home,  where  one 
mother  sits  in  single  uncrowned  honor,  the  queen  of  her  home. 
And  now,  my  countrymen,  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  in  every 
hope  you  have  for  Utah,  running-  on  these  lines  of  free  gov- 
ernment, on  these  lines  of  domestic  and  social  order,  I  have 
for  every  one  of  you  the  most  cordial  greeting,  and  enter  with 
you  into  your  most  gorgeous  hopes.  God  bless  and  keep  you 
all,  and  guide  you  in  those  same  paths  of  social  purity  and 
order  and  peace  that  shall  make  you  one  of  the  greatest  com- 
monwealths in  the  American  Union."  After  the  proceedings 
at  Liberty  Park,  the  visitors  attended  the  opening  of  the  new 
Chamber  of  Commerce  Building,  and  then  took  train  for  the 
East. 

Utah  Republicans. — Eleven  days  later,  at  a  mass  meet- 
ing in  the  Salt  Lake  Theatre,  it  was  proposed  to  organize  the 
Republican  Party  of  Utah.  A  strong  adverse  sentiment  de- 
veloped, but  was  overcome  by  a  vote  of  two  to  one,  and  a 
.committee  of  "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles,"  including  such 
names  as  James  Sharp,  John  Henry  Smith,  Charles  W.  Ben- 
nett, and  H.  G.  McMillan,  was  appointed  to  publish  an  ad- 
dress to  the  people,  favoring  the  organization  of  national 
political  parties  in  the  Territory.  Immediately  after  the  pub- 
lication of  that  address,  the  Central  Republican  Club  was 
formed,  and  the  organization  of  the  Republican  Party  soon 
followed. 

The  People's  Party  Disbands.— The  People's  Party  went 
cut  of  existence  on  the  10th  of  June,  when  its  Territorial  Com- 
mittee met  and  adopted  a  resolution  dissolving  the  organiza- 
tion, leaving  those  belonging  to  it  "free  to  unite  with  the 
great  national  parties  according  to  individual  preference." 
Republicans  were  fewer  than  Democrats  at  that  time,  for  the 
reason  that  many  having  Republican  principles  held  aloof 
from  politics  at  the  beginning,  while  others  of  similar  lean- 
ings constituted  the  majority  of  the  Liberty  Party,  which 'had 
not  yet  decided  to  disband. 


494    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  Liberal  Attitude. — Most  of  the  Liberal  leaders  and 
their  followers  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  new  political 
movement.  They  distrusted  the  sincerity  of  the  People's 
Party,  or  those  until  recently  connected  with  it,  charging 
that  they  had  dissolved  their  organization  at  the  dictum  of  the 
Church,  and  that  it  was  a  plot  to  divide  the  Liberals  and  place 
the  political  control  of  the  Territory  in  "Mormon"  hands  for 
purposes  adverse  to  "Gentile"  interests.  They  declared  that 
the  Priesthood  claimed  the  right  to  direct  the  people  how  to 
vote  at  all  times,  and  that  if  Utah  became  a  State  the  "Mor- 
mons," through  their  Church-influenced  Legislatures,  would 
enact  laws  oppressive  to  the  "Gentiles,"  even  to  the  virtual 
confiscation  of  their  property. 

From  the  Church  Leaders. — In  a  conciliatory  reply  to 
these  accusations,  the  First  Presidency  made  a  statement  in 
the  form  of  an  interview,  published  in  the  Salt  Lake  Times, 
embodying  substantially,  though  at  greater  length,  the  fol- 
lowing propositions: 

1.  The  Church  will  not  assert  any  right  to  control  the 
political  actions  of  its  members.     The  officers  of  the  Church 
disclaim  such  right. 

2.  There    will  be   no    reason    for  the  members  of    the 
Church  to  come  together  and  vote  solidly  if  political  condi- 
tions in'  Utah  are  similar  to  those  which  prevail  elsewhere. 

3.  However  much  appearances  may  have  indicated  that 
the  "Mormon"  people  favor  such  a  condition,  there  is  no  real 
disposition  among  them  to  unite  Church  and  State;  in  fact, 
there   should  be  a   separation  between  the  two. 

4.  It  is  the  wish  of  the  "Mormon"  people  to  unite  with 
the  great  national  parties  and  conduct  politics  in  Utah  as  they 
are  conducted  in  all  other  States;  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
members  of  the   Church   should  not  act  freely  with  the  na- 
tional parties  at  all  times. 

5.  It  is  conceded  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  for 
the  Church  by  securing  for  it  political  control  in  Utah,  with 
or  without  Statehood;  the  members  and  leaders  of  the  Church 
desire  to  place  it  in  a  position  in  the  community  like  that 
occupied  by  other  religious  bodies;  the  only  protection   the 
"Mormon"  Church  desires  is  that  which  it  would  obtain  under 
general  laws  which  secure  the  rights  of  all  denominations.     It 
would  be  unwise  for  the  "Mormon"  people  to  endeavor  to 
receive  any  advantages  not  shared  in  by  all  other  religious 
people.    All  that  is  asked  for  the  Church  is  that  it  shall  have 
equal  rights  before  the  law. 

First  Election  After  National  Alignments. — In  August 
occurred  the  first  election  in  Utah  after  the  division  on  na- 
tional party  lines.  The  election  was  for  County  officers  and 


PREPARING  FOR  SOVEREIGNTY. 


495 


members  of  the  Legislature,  and  three  tickets  were  in  the 
field — Democratic,  Republican  and  Liberal.  Excepting  Salt 
Lake  County,  where  the  Liberals  elected  almost  their  entire 
ticket,  the  Democrats  were  victorious  throughout  the  Terri- 
tory; the  Republican  vote  being  comparatively  small. 

Legislature  of  1892. — The  Legislature  convening  on  Jan- 
uary llth,  1892,  organized  with  William  H.  King  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council,  and  William  H.  Seegmiller  as  Speaker  of 
the  House.  Among  the  laws  enacted  during  the  session  was 
one  providing  that  all  general  and  local  elections  should  be 
held  on  Tuesday  following  the  first  Monday  in  November, 
1893,  and  biennially  thereafter.  Grand  County  was  created, 
and  the  Fourth  Judicial  District  organized ;  the  latter  compris- 
ing Weber,  Box  Elder,  Cache,  Rich  and  Morgan  counties.  It 
was  also  provided  that  Utah  should  be  appropriately  repre- 
sented at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 

Home  Rule  and  Statehood. — Early  in  1892  Congress  be- 
gan wrestling  with  the  dual  problem  of  Home  Rule  and  State- 
hood for  Utah;  bills  favoring  both  propositions  having  been 
presented  at  Washington.  The  Home  Rule  Bill,  a  Democratic 
measure,  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by 
Delegate  Caine,  and  in  the 
Senate  by  Senator  Faulkner, 
of  West  Virginia.  Delegations 
from  Utah  spoke  for  and 
against  it  before  the  Commit- 
tee on  Territories.  Among 
the  advocates  of  Home  Rule 
were  Harvey  W.  Smitht 
Charles  C.  Richards,  John  W. 
Judd,  Franklin  S.  Richards, 
Thomas  J.  Anderson,  Joseph 
L.  Rawlins,  Frank  H.  Dyer, 
and  Caleb  W.  West.  Its 
principal  opponents  were  Or- 
lando W.  Powers,  Clarence  E. 
Allen,  Charles  W.  Bennett, 
and  John  Henry  Smith.  Some 
of  these  argued  for  Statehood 
rather  than  against  Home 
Rule.  The  Republicans  origi- 
nated the  Statehood  Bill, 
which  was  introduced  by  Sen- 
ator Henry  M.  Teller,  of  Colo- 
rado. The  Utah  Delegate  also 
introduced  a  bill  for  an  En- 
abling Act.  But  none  of  these  measures  passed  through  Cong- 
ress. 


O.    J.    SALISBURY. 


496    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Pardon  for  Polygamists. — While  the  Home  Rule  Bift 
was  being  considered,  a  petition  was  presented,  signed  by 
the  First  Presidency  and  Twelve  Apostles  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  asking  amnesty  for  all 
polygamists.  This  petition,  dated  at  Salt  Lake  City,  Decem- 
19,  1891, and  endorsed  by  Governor  Thomas,  Chief  Justice 
Zane,  and  other  "Gentiles,"  was  read  by  Delegate  Caine  be- 
fore the  Senate  Committee  on  Territories,  and  became  a  part 
of  the  published  proceedings  of  that  body.  President  Harri- 
son, on  January  4,  1893,  issued  a  proclamation  of  pardon  to 
polygamists  for  past  offenses,  with  a  recommendation  that 
future  infractions  be  vigorously  prosecuted.  The  pardon  was 
limited  to  those  who,  since  November  1st,  1890,  had  abstained 
from  unlawful  cohabitation.  Agreeable  to  the  terms  of  this 
proclamation,  the  Utah  Commission  ruled  that  former  polyg- 
amists might  vote  at  elections  in  this  Territory.* 

To  the  National  Conventions. — The  Territorial  Con- 
ventions of  the  newly  organ- 
ized parties  sent  strong  dele- 
gations to  the  National  Con- 
ventions in  1892.  At  Chicago, 
John  T.  Caine  and  Henry  P. 
Henderson  assisted  to  nomi- 
nate Grover  Cleveland  for  his 
second  term  as  President.  The 
Democratic  Liberals,  who  had 
organized  the  Tuscarora  Club, 
sent  their  Grand  Sachem, 
Judge  Powers,  with  Mayor 
Kiesel,  to  the  same  conven- 
tion ;  but  they  were  refused  ad- 
mission. At  Minneapolis  O.  J. 
Salisbury  and  Frank  J.  Cannon 
sat  in  the  Republican  Conven- 
tion, which  also  admitted  C.  C. 
Goodwin  and  C.  E.  Allen,  rep- 
resenting the  Republican  wing 
of  the  Liberal  Party.  Each  one 
of  the  four  was  given  half  a 

DELEGATE  RAWLINS.  vote. 

Rawlins  Elected  Delegate. — The  ensuing  autumn  wit- 
nessed a  triangular  political  battle  for  the  Delegateship ;  Jo- 


*About  a  year  later  the  Commission  was  reorganized,  with  Utah 
men  as  its  members,  namely  J.  R.  Letcher,  George  W.  Thatcher,  A.  G. 
Norrell,  Hoyt  Sherman,  Jr.,  and  E.  W.  Tatlock.  One  of  these  was 
a  "Mormon" — Mr.  Thatcher,  who  resided  at  Logan. 


PREPARING  FOR  SOVEREIGNTY. 


497 


seph  L.  Rawlins  leading  the  Democrats,  Frank  J.  Cannon  the 
Republicans,  and  Clarence  E.  Allen  the  Liberals.  A  spirited 
campaign  throughout  the  Territory  ended  in  a  debate  between 
the  Democratic  and  Republican  candidates,  at  the  Salt  Lake 
Theatre,  on  the  evening  of  November  7th.  Next  day  the  issue 
was  decided  at  the  polls.  Church  influence,  in  the  interest  of 
Mr.  Cannon,  was  alleged  to  have  been  used  at  this  election; 
but  the  charge  was  denied.  Mr.  Rawlins  was  elected  by  a 
plurality  of  nearly  three  thousand.  The  Delegate-elect  took 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives  at  the  opening  of  the 
extra  session  of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  during  Aug- 
ust, 1893. 

Democracy  Again  Triumphs.— Meanwhile  the  National 
Democracy  had  again  prevailed,  and  once  more  Grover 
Cleveland  was  President.  In 
April  of  that  year  Caleb  W. 
West  was  re-appointed  Gov- 
ernor of  Utah,  and  in  May 
Charles  C.  Richards  became 
Secretary.  Mr.  Richards  was 
a  native  of  the  Territory  and 
a  prominent  lawyer  of  Ogden. 
He  had  been  active  in  organ- 
izing the  Democratic  Party 
throughout  Utah.  About  the 
same  time  Nat  M.  Brigham, 
originally'  from  Massachu- 
setts, but  for  several  years  a 
resident  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
was  made  United  States 
Marshal.  In  January,  1894, 
Samuel  A.  Merritt,  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  Utah  Bar, 
succeeded  Charles,  S.  Zane  as 
Chief  Justice.  The  latest  ap- 
pointed Associate  Justices 
were  Harvey  W.  Smith  and 
James  A.  Miner,  the  latter 
presiding  over  the  newly  created  Fourth  District. 

The  Salt  Lake  Temple  Dedicated. — An  event  of  special 
import  to  most  of  the  people  of  Utah,  and  of  general  interest 
to  all,  occurred  in  April,  1893,  when  the  completed  Salt  Lake 
Temple,  which  had  been  in  course  of  erection  for  forty  years, 
was  dedicated  with  solemn  and  impressive  ceremonies.  None 
but  Latter-day  Saints  were  admitted  .to  the  dedication— this 
being  the  rule  of  the  Church — but  before  that  event  a  special 
invitation  was  extended  by  the  General  Authorities  to  prom- 

31 


SECRETARY  RICHARDS. 


498    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


iii 


SALT   LAKE  TEMPLE. 

inent  "Gentiles,"  requesting  all  who  so  desired  to  pass  through 
and  inspect  the  interior  of  the  sacred  edifice.  The  invitation 
was  accepted,  quite  a  procession  of  "outsiders"  availing  them- 
selves of  the  rare  and  unlocked  for  privilege.  The  Salt  Lake 
Tribune  ,which  was  still  the  organ  of  the  Liberal  Party,  ex- 
pressed its  high  appreciation  of  an  act  of  courtesy  which  it 
said  had  placed  them  under  a  sense  of  deep  obligation. 

The  dedication,  beginning  on  the  6th  of  April — the  sixty- 
third  anniversary  of  the  organization  of  the  Church — was  con- 
tinued from  day  to  day  for  the  accommodation  of  the  people 
thronging  from  every  quarter,  the  original  ceremony  being  re- 
peated until  all  had  had  the  opportunity  to  witness  it.  The 
proceedings  were  under  the  direction  of  President  Wilford 
Woodruff  and  his  Counselors. 

Utah  at  the  World's  Fair. — In  the  selection  of  National 
Commissioners  to  look  after  Utah  interests  at  the  World's 
Fair  (Chicago,  1892-1893),  President  Harrison  had  named  P. 


PREPARING  FOR  SOVEREIGNTY. 


499 


H.  Lannan  and  F.  J.  Kiesel, 
both  "Gentiles,"  residents  re- 
spectively of  Salt  Lake  City 
and  Ogden.  For  a  like  pur- 
pose, Governor  Thomas  had 
appointed  as  Territorial  Com- 
missioners two  "Gentiles" — 
Robert  C.  Chambers  and 
Richard  Mclntosh — and  one 
"M  o  r  m  o  n" — N  e  1  s  o  n  A. 
Empey;  all  of  Salt  Lake  City. 
These  gentlemen,  with  an 
army  of  aids,  male  and  female, 
labored  zealously  and  success- 
fully for  the  accomplishment 
of  the  important  undertak- 
ing. At  the  head  of  a  board 
of  Lady  Managers  stood  Mrs. 
Emily  S.  Richards,  wife  of 
Franklin  S.  Richards,  of  Salt 
Lake  City.  Among  her  asso- 
ciates were  Mrs.  Jane  S.  Rich- 
ards, of  Ogden;  Mrs.  Electa 
Bullock,  of  Provo;  and  Mrs. 
Luna  Y.  Thatcher,  of  Logan. 
These  ladies  were  all  members  of  the 


ROBERT    C.    CHAMBERS. 


"Mormon"  Church. 


On  the  Fair  Grounds  an  eligible  site  was  secured  and  a 
suitable  building  erected,  in  which  a  creditable  exhibition  rep- 
resenting Utah's  resources  and  attractions  was  maintained 
during  the  continuance  of  the  Exposition.  The  approach  to  the 
Utah  Building  was  a  reproduction  of  Eagle  Gate,  and  upon 
the  lawn  stood  Dallin's  bronze  statue  of  Brigham  Young,  now 
part  of  the  Pioneer  Monument  at  Salt  Lake  City.  The  Terri- 
tory placed  additional  exhibits  in  the  Agricultural,  Manu- 
factures, Mining,  Fine  Arts,  Educational,  Archaeological 
Ethnological,  and  Women's  departments.  Among  the  most 
attractive  features  was  the  silk  display,  which  created  wide- 
spread favorable  comment.  A  costly  pair  of  silk  curtains, 
beautifully  embroidered  in  the  design  of  a  honey  bee,  testified 
to  the  skill  and  taste  of  ladies  of  Salt  Lake  and  Ogden.  The 
curtains  were  designed  for  the  Woman's  Building — projected 
but  never  built — and  were  presented  to  Mrs.  Potter-Palmer 
(whose  husband  had  subscribed  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
toward  such  a  structure)  by  Mrs.  O.  J.  Salisbury,  represent- 
ing the  women  of  Utah  on  that  occasion.  The  cost  of  pre- 
paring and  maintaining  these  exhibits  was  over  sixty  thousand 
dollars,  about  one-third  of  which  was  returned  in  materials, 
articles  and  other  property,  going  to  equip  various  home  insti- 


500    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


NELSON    A.    EMPEY. 


route.  One  of  the  places 
visited  was  Independence,  Jack- 
son County,  Missouri,  from 
which  section,  sixty  years  be- 
Saints  had  been  expelled  by 
violence.  Now  the  "Mormon" 
leaders  were  hospitably  re- 
ceived, the  Mayor  of  Independ- 
ence coming  out  to  meet  them, 
and  delivering  a  speech  of  wel- 
come. They  were  also  kindly 
treated  at  Chicago,  where  the 
Choir  presented  Director  Gen- 
eral Davis  with  a  cane  made 
by  one  of  its  members  from  a 
piece  of  mountain  mahogany. 
The  Religious  Parliament. 
—Very  different  was  the  treat- 
ment meted  out  to  the  "Mor- 
mon" representative,  Elder  B. 
H.  Roberts,  at  the  World's 
Parliament  of  Religions,  an  ad- 
junct to  the  great  Fair.  In  re- 


tutions,  notably  the  Deseret 
Agricultural  and  Manufactur- 
ing Society  and  the  Univer- 
sity of  Deseret. 

Utah  day  at  the  Fair  was  the 
9th  of  September,  the  forty- 
third  anniversary  of  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Territory.  Gov- 
ernor West,  President  Wood- 
ruff, and  other  leading  citizens 
were  present  and  made 
speeches  on  the  occasion.  In 
the  great  Choral  Contest  the 
Tabernacle  Choir  of  Salt  Lake 
City  won  second  prize,  and  in 
the  opinion  of  many  merited 
the  first.  This  splendid  body 
of  singers  had  set  out  for  Chi- 
cago in  company  with  the 
First  Presidency  and  others, 
the  entire  party  numbering 
about  four  hundred  persons. 
The  Choir  gave  concerts  in 
some  of  the  large  cities  en 


MRS.    EMILY    S.    RICHARDS. 


PREPARING   FOR   SOVEREIGNTY. 


501 


MRS  ELRCTA  BULLOCK 


spouse  to  a  general  invitation, 
issued  by  the  directors  of  the 
Parliament  to  the  religious  so- 
cieties of  every  country,  Elder 
Roberts  had  been  appointed 
by  the  Presidency  of  the 
Church  to  represent  the  Lat- 
ter-day Saints  ;  but  when  he 
applied  for  permission  to  speak 
from  the  same  platform  where 
Christian,  Buddhist,  Moham- 
medan, and  Jew  had  stood 
voicing  their  religious  views, 
he  was  denied  that  privilege  ; 
a  manifestation  of  bigotry 
hardly  looked  for,  and  entirely 
inconsistent  with  the  avowed 
purpose  for  which  the  Parlia- 
ment had  been  summoned. 

Liberals  Defeated  by  Fu- 
sionists.  —  Following  the  exam- 
pie  of  Ogden  where,  in  Febru- 
ary,  loyl,  voters  ot  all  parties, 
uniting,  had  taken  from  the  hands  of  the  Liberals  the  reins 
of  government,  the  IndependentCitizens  of  Salt  Lake  City  — 
''Gentiles"  and  "Mormons"—  put  up  a  fusion  ticket,  and  at  the 
November  election  in  1893,  secured  all  the  municipal  offices 
excepting  Treasurer  and  five  members  of  the  City  Council. 
The  Independent  ticket  was  headed  with  the  name  of  Robert 
N.  Baskin,  who  was  thus  given  a  second  term  as  Mayor  of 
Salt  Lake  City,  the  Liberals  having  elected  him  two  years 
before.  Judge  Baskin,  during  his  first  term,  had  come  out 
strong  against  the  extravagance  and  misrule  of  his  own  party 
administration,  and  it  was  in  recognition  of  his  commendable 
attitude  that  the  Independents  made  him  their  candidate. 
While  Mr.  Baskin  was  Mayor,  the  Salt  Lake  City  and  County 
Building  was  erected  on  Washington  Square. 

Governor  West  for  Statehood.  —  Governor  West,  report- 
ing to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  October,  1893,  said: 
''We  now  have  a  population  of  about  250,000.  An  assessed 
taxable  valuation  of  -$109,000,000.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
dilate  upon  or  go  into  particulars  as  to  Utah's  population, 
wealth,  stability,  and  material  development,  entitling  her  to 
Statehood.  *  *  *  A  small  minority  continue  to  interpose 
objections  to  the  conferring  of  this  great  boon  upon  the  .Terri- 
tory. It  affords  me  pleasure,  however,  to  be  able  to  state  that 
this  class  is  constantly  growing  less  and  its  numbers  rapidly 
decreasing.  Our  people,  afteryears  of  earnest  effort,  have 


502    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

peacefully  solved  their  diffi- 
culties and  satisfactorily  set- 
tled their  differences.  The  sal- 
utary lessons  inculcated  in  the 
school  of  actual  experience 
have  admirably  trained  and  fit- 
ted them  for  the  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  State  Govern- 
ment/' The  Governor  also 
recommended  the  return  to  the 
"Mormon"  Church  of  its  prop- 
erty, seized  and  held  under  the 
operations  of  the  Edmunds- 
Tucker  Act. 

Personal  Property  Re- 
turned.— A  movement  to  re- 
store the  personal  property, 
which  had  been  taken  without 
warrant  of  law,  was  already  on 
foot,  Delegate  Rawlins  having 
MAYOR  BASKIN.  presented  to  Congress,  during 

September,  a  resolution  to  that  end.  This  property  was  valued 
at  about  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  has  already  been 
shown  how  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington  decided  (May, 
1891),  that  all  the  Church  property  then  in  the  hands  of  the 
Receiver  should  remain  there  pending  further  action  by  the 
Utah  courts;  and  how,  in  order  to  determine  the  uses  to  which 
it  might  best  be  applied,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory 
appointed  Judge  Loofbourow  a  Master  in  Chancery,  to  take 
testimony  in  the  case,  which  was  heard  by  him  in  October  of 
that  year.  The  Master  in  Chancery  filed  his  report  in  Janu- 
ary, 1892,  recommending  that  the  property  be  devoted  to  the 
benefit  of  the  public  schools.  In  July  the  Court  directed  the 
Receiver  to  turn  over  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  the 
escheated  real  estate,  and  later  authorized  the  use  of  the  per- 
sonal property  for  building  and  repairing  houses  of  worship 
and  for  the  support  of  the  poor.  Leonard  G.  Hardy,  "Mor- 
mon" and  Bishop  of  the  Second  Ward,  Salt  Lake  Stake,  was 
appointed  a  trustee  for  that  purpose.  He  filed  his  bond,  but 
before  he  could  enter  upon  the  discharge  of  his  duties,  Con- 
gress enacted  the  Rawlins  resolution  restoring  the  personal 
property  to  the  Church.  The  date  of  approval  by  the  Presi- 
dent was  October  25,  1893.* 

*By  the  resolution,  the  personal  property  and  money  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  not  arising  from  the 
sale  or  rents  of  real  estate  since  March  3,  1887,  was  "restored  to  said 
Church,  to  be  applied  under  the  direction  and  control  of  the  First 
Presidency  of  said  Church  to  the  charitable  uses  and  purposes 
thereof." 


PREPARING   FOR   SOVEREIGNTY.  503 

The  Liberal  Party  Dissolves. — The  general  election  in 
November  of  that  year  placed  in  the  Legislative  Council  five 
Democrats,  five  Republicans,  and  two  Liberals;  while  eight 
Democrats,  ten  Republicans  and  six  Liberals  were  in  the 
House.  Soon  after  the  election  the  Tribune  advised  the  Lib- 
erals to  dissolve  their  organization  and  unite  with  the  national 
parties,  which  were  growing  in  strength  daily.  Accordingly, 
the  Convention  that  had  nominated  their  ticket,  re-assembling, 
adopted  a  resolution  declaring  the  Liberal  Party  dissolved.  It 
was  understood  that  those  elected  as  Liberals  would  act  in  the 
Legislature  with  their  respective  parties,  as  Democrats  .or  Re- 
publicans. 

The  Enabling  Act.— The  bill  destined  to  become  "The 
Enabling  Act,"  under  which  Utah  was  admitted  into  the 
Union  of  States,  was  drafted  by  Delegate  Rawlins,  and  by  him 
presented  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  6th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1893.  Referred  to  the  Committee  on  Territories,  and 
reported  back  with  an  amendment,  it  was  debated  two  days, 
passing  the  House  on  the  13th  of  December.  While  speaking 
to  the  question,  Mr.  Rawlins  made  a  vigorous  and  telling  re- 
ply to  Representative  Morse,  of  Massachusetts,  who  had  de- 
nounced the  people  of  Utah  as  criminals  and  vagabonds,  im- 
puting to  their  Delegate  a  sinister  motive  in  proposing  State- 
hood for  the  Territory.* 

"An  Act  to  Enable  the  People  of  Utah  to  Form  a  Consti- 
tution and  State  Government,  and  to  be  Admitted  into  the 
Union  on  an  Equal  Footing  with  the  Original  States,"  having 
passed  House  and  Senate,  was  approved  by  President  Cleve- 
land on  the  16th  of  July,  1894.  It  authorized  the  holding  of  a 
Constitutional  Convention,f  to  be  composed  of  one  hundred 

*Rawlins,  after  ^reminding  Morse  that  conditions  had  changed  in 
Utah,  said:  "There  is  less  polygamy,  as  shown  by  the  records  for  the 
last  ten  years  in  Utah,  made  known  and  which  has  come  to  light,  in 
proportion  to  population,  than  there  has  been  in  the  same  time  in  the 
State  of  Massachusetts."  Laughter  and  applause  greeted  this  remark, 
and  the  Delegate  continued:  "When  an  entire  people  is  arraigned  by 
any  gentleman,  he  certainly  ought  to  be  prepared  with  some  evidence 
to  justify  what  he  ,says.  And  when  a  gentleman  arises  upon  this 
floor,  as  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  did,  and  makes  the  as- 
sertion with  respect  to  the  people  of  Utah,  that  they  are  murderers, 
polygamists,  thieves,  vagabonds,  and  is  not  able  to  produce  one  syl- 
lable of  evidence  to  justify  his  statement,  *  *  *  he  ought  to  hang 
his  head  in  shame.  He  is  not  worthy  to  represent  a  civilized  people" 
(Applause). 

tThe  Delegates  were  apportioned  as  follows:  Beaver  County, 
two;  Box  Elder,  four;  Cache,  eight;  Davis,  three;  Emery,  three;  Gar- 
field,  one;  Grand,  ,one;  Iron,  one;  Juab,  three:  Kane,  one;  Millard, 
two;  Morgan,  one;  Piute,  one;  Rich,  one;  Salt  Lake,  twenty-nine; 
San  Juan,  one;  Sanpete,  seven;  Sevier,  three;  Summit,  four;  Tooele, 
two;  Uintah,  one;  Utah,  twelve;  Wasatch,  two;  Washington,  two; 
Wayne,  one;  Weber,  eleven. 


504    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


JOHN   HENRY  SMITH, 


and  seven  delegates,  who  were 
to  meet  at  the  capital  of  the 
Territory  on  the  first  Monday 
in  March,  1895,  and  frame  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  pro- 
posed State. 

A  Republican  Victory. — 
The  election  of  delegates  to  the 
Constitutional  Convention  took 
place  on  the  6th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1894.  At  the  same  time 
a  Delegate  to  Congress  was 
chosen,  to  succeed  Mr.  Raw- 
lins,  whose  term  was  about  to 
expire.  Again  he  had  been 
made  the  Candidate  of  his 
party,  and  once  more  the  Re- 
publicans had  put  forward 
Frank  J.  Cannon,  whom  Raw- 
lins  had  defeated  two  years  be- 
fore. That  result  was  now  re- 
versed; Cannon  defeating  Rawlins.  The  Republicans  also 
elected  sixty  members  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  giv- 
ing them  a  majority  of  thirteen  in  that  body.  The  extent  of 
this  victory  was  owing  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Liberal 
Party,  most  of  whose  adherents  had  ranged  themselves  under 
the  Republican  banner.  The  conversion  of  an  element  hith- 
erto neutral  in  politics  had  also  strongly  reinforced  that 
organization.  Above  all,  the  general  cry  of  "Hard  Times" 
was  effectual  against  the  party  in  power. 

The  Constitutional  Convention. — The  Constitutional  Con- 
vention met  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Salt  Lake  City 
and  County  Building,  on  Monday,  March  4,  1895,  and  organ- 
ized with  John  Henry  Smith  as  President.  This  gentleman 
was  a  son  of  the  Pioneer,  George  A.  Smith,  who  is  said  to 
have  planted  the  first  potato  in  Salt  Lake  Valley.  The  Con- 
vention was  in  session  for  sixty-six  days,  and  the  result  of 
its  labors  was  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Utah.  It  dif- 
iered  from  the  Constitutions  of  most  of  the  States  in  that  it 
accorded  to  women  equal  suffrage  with  men,  and  provided  by 
ordinance,  irrevocable  without  the  consent  of  the  United 
States  and  the  people  of  Utah,  that  polygamous  or  plural  mar- 
riages were  forever  prohibited. 

In  an  address  to  the  people,  submitting  to  them  the  Con- 
stitution, the  members  of  the  Convention  thus  expressed  them- 
selves: "If  with  Statehood  there  will  be  a  slight  increase  in 
taxes,  the  compensating  advantages  will  cause  the  increased 


PREPARING   FOR   SOVEREIGNTY.  505 

expense  to  be  forgotten.  We  shall  be  able  to  utilize  the  mag- 
nificent gift  of  over  seven  million  acres  of  land  from  our  gen- 
erous Government;  we  shall  be  able  to  secure  capital  for  our 
mines;  under  the  shield  of  Statehood  thousands  of  people  will 
seek  homes  in  our  climate,  assist  to  develop  our  wondrous  and 
varied  resources,  and  rejoice  in  the  manifold  blessings  be- 
stowed by  Nature  upon  our  highly  favored  commonwealth. 
When  we  reflect  that  this  instrument  will  secure  to  us  in  its 
highest  sense  local  self-government,  with  State  officers  of  our 
own  selection,  and  courts  for  the  swift,  capable,  and  economi- 
cal administration  of  the  laws  by  judges  of  the  people's  choos- 
ing ;  that  it  will  give  us  a  school  system  abreast  of  the  fore- 
most in  the  Union,  with  power  to  utilize  the  lands  donated  to 
our  educational  institutions;  give  us  a  voice  in  the  election 
of  Presidents,  also  two  Senators  and  one  Representative  to 
present  the  claims  of  our  new  State  in  the  Congress  of  the 
Nation ;  add  the  Star  of  Utah  to  the  hallowed  ensign  of  the  Re- 
public; bestow  upon  us  full  sovereignty  with  all  that  this 
majestic  term  implies,  and  thus  draw  to  us  capital  and  popula- 
tion, and  invest  us  with  a  dignity  that  could  never  attach  to  a 
Territorial  condition,  with  steadily  swelling  confidence  we 
submit  this  Constitution  to  the  consideration  of  the  people  of 
Utah,  in  the  certain  belief  that  they  will,  by  an  overwhelming 
majority,  endorse  and  ratify  our  work." 

Constitution  Ratified— State  Officers  Chosen.— The  Con- 
stitution was  ratified  by  an  immense  vote,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  first  State  officers  were  chosen.  Three  tickets  had 
been  nominated — Republican,  Democratic  and  Populist. 
The  Republican  ticket  was  victorious,  standing  as  follows : 
Governor  Heber  M.  Wells,  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court 
Charles  S.  Zane,  George  W.  Bartch,  and  James  A.  Miner,  Sec- 
retary of  State  James  T.  Hammond,  Attorney  General  A.  C. 
Bishop,  Treasurer  James  Chipman,  Auditor  Morgan  Rich- 
ards, Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  John  R.  Park. 
The  Republicans  also  elected  Clarence  E.  Allen,  Representa- 
tive in  Congress,  and  secured  a  majority  in  the  State  Legis- 
lature. 

The  District  Judges  were  Charles  H.  Hart,  Henry  H. 
Rolapp,  Ogden  Hiles,  John  A.  Street,  Morris  L.  Ritchie,  Ervin 
A.  Wilson,  Edward  V.  Higgins,  William  H.  McCarty,  and 
Jacob  Johnson.  Judges  Hart,  Rolapp,  Hiles,  and  Wilson  were 
Democrats;  the  remainder,  Republicans. 

Immediately  after  the  acceptance  of  the  State  Constitu1 
tion  by  the  people  of  the  Territory,  an  engrossed  copy  of  the 
instrument,  duly  certified  by  the  Utah  Commission,  was  for- 
warded to  Washington  and  submitted  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States. 


XXXIV. 

THE  FORTY-FIFTH  STATE. 

1896-1897. 

Announcement  of  Utah's  Admissidn. — All  was  now  ready 
for  the  President's  proclamation  announcing  the  admission  of 
Utah  into  the  Union.  Such  a  proclamation,  it  was  under- 
stood, would  issue  from  Washington,  if  the  Constitution  and 
Government  of  the  proposed  State  were  found  to  be  repub- 
lican in  form,  with  all  the  provisions  of  the  Enabling  Act  com- 
plied with  by  the  people  of  the 
Territory.  The  eagerly-awaited 
tidings  came  during  the  fore- 
noon of  Saturday,  January 
4th,  1896,  and  were  greeted 
throughout  Utah  with  joyful 
enthusiasm.  At  the  capital  the 
reception  of  the  news  was 
made  known  by  the  firing  of  a 
shot  in  front  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Office ;  a  sig- 
nal that  set  bells  to  ringing,  whis- 
tles blowing,  and  guns  firing, 
all  over  town,  in  celebration  of 
the  event.  The  dav  was  bright, 
and  everybody  jubilant. 

Inaugural     Ceremonies.  — 
The    ceremonies    of   inaugura- 
tion   were    reserved   for    Mon- 
day  the   6th,   and   the   Taber- 
nacle,   the    largest    auditorium 

available,  was  utilized  for  the  purpose.  It  was  draped  with 
American  flags,  one  of  them  measuring  a  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  length,  by  seventy-five  in  width.  Hanging  from  the 
concave  dome  near  the  great  organ,  it  covered  the  entire  space 
between  the  ends  of  the  galleries.  Upon  this  flag  the  forty- 
fifth  star  was  illuminated ;  that  being  Utah's  number  in  the 
national  constellation.  High  up  between  the  organ  pipes, 
above  the  dates  1847  and  1896,  hovered  with  outspread  wings 
an  effiey  of  the  American  eagle,  while  below  blazed  the  word 
"Utah"  in  electrical  display.  More  than  ten  thousand  people 
thronged  the  spacious  interior,  while  other  thousands  stood 


THE   FORTY-FIFTH   STATE.  507 

outside,  unable  to  gain  admittance.  Upon  the  stand  were 
many  leading  citizens,  including  the  authorities  of  the  Terri- 
tory, Fort  Douglas  officers,  and  the  newly-elected  servants  of 
the  people. 

Governor  West  being  absent,  Secretary  Richards  presided 
over  and  directed  the  proceedings.  They  began  at  thirty  min- 
utes past  the  noon  hour,  with  preliminary  remarks  by  the 
Chairman,  and  music  from  the  United  States  Sixteenth  In- 
fantry Band.  This  splendid  organization,  with  the  equally 
excellent  Denhalter  Band,  rendered  various  selections  during 
the  progress  of  the  meeting.  The  opening  prayer  was  of- 
fered by  President  George  Q.  Cannon,  in  behalf  of  President 
Woodruff,  who  was  present,  but  in  feeble  health.  A  chorus  of 
one  thousand  children,  all  waving  flags  and  keeping  time 
to  the  conductor's  baton,  then  sang  "The  Star-Spangled  Ban- 
ner." 

Ex-Delegate  Rawlins,  taking  the  stand,  read  the  procla- 
mation by  which  Utah  had  been  admitted  into  the  Union,  and 
addressed  to  the  Governor-elect  these  words:  "I  now  have 
the  honor  to  present  to  you,  the  first  Governor  of  the  new 
State  of  Utah,  the  pen  used  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  ten  minutes  before  midnight,  July  16,  1894,  to  sign  the 
bill  under  which  Utah  has  become  a  State.  I  present  it  to  you 
in  order  that  it  may  be  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Com- 
monwealth." The  pen  was  handed  to  Governor  Wells  amidst 
applause  and  cheers  from  the  multitude. 

Governor  Wells. — The  new  Executive  was  introduced  by 
Acting-Governor  Richards,  who,  in  behalf  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, surrendered  the  offices  and  public  affairs  of  the  Ter- 
ritory into  the  keeping  of  the  State.  The  oath  of  office  was 
administered  to  Governor  Wells  and  his  associates  by  Chief 
Justice  Zane,  who  had  been  sworn  in  previously.  The  Taber- 
nacle Choir  sang  "Utah,  We  Love  Thee,"  written  and  com- 
posed for  the  occasion  by  their  leader,  Professor  Evan  Steph- 
ens, and  Secretary  of  State  Hammond  read  a  proclamation 
from  the  Governor,  convening  the  Legislature  in  special  ses- 
sion that  afternoon. 

Governor  Wells  then  delivered  his  inaugural  rrlessage. 
Beginning  with  a  tribute  to  the  Pioneers,  he  congratulated 
them  and  the  citizens  in  general  that  Utah  had  become  a  State. 
He  also  congratulated  the  State  and  Nation  upon  the  Terri- 
tory's admission,  and  related  the  various  efforts  made  by  the 
founders  of  the  commonwealth  to  give  the  event  an  earlier 
date.  The  fact  that  Chief  Justice  Zane,  a  "Gentile,"  had  been* 
chosen  for  the  highest  judicial  office,  and  himself,  a  "Mormon," 
for  the  first  executive  office  in  the  new  State,  was  cited  as  a 


508    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

proof  that  old  wounds  had  been  healed  and  old  animosities 
buried.  The  speaker  recounted  Utah's  material  wealth  and 
resources,  advocated  the  construction  of  a  railroad  to  the 
South  and  West,  and  called  attention  to  the  prospective  open- 
ing of  the  Uintah  and  I^ncompahgre  Indian  reservations  to 
white  settlement  and  occupancy.  Woman  Suffrage,  which  the 
Governor  had  helped  to  place  in  the  State  Constitution,  was 
made  the  subject  of  a  complimentary  allusion.  The  speech 
closed  with  an.  exhortation  to  continued  patriotism  on  the  part 
of  the  people,  and  a  portrayal  of  the  glorious  privileges  of  citi- 
zenship in  a  free  and  sovereign  State.* 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Governor's  address,  the  Choir 
sang  "America,"  and  Reverend  Thomas  C.  Iliff,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church,  pronounced  the  benediction.  To  the  strains  of 
"Hail  Columbia,"  by  the  Sixteenth  Infantry  Band,  the  great 
throng  poured  out  into  the  sunlight,  and  the  inaugural  pro- 
ceedings of  the  State  of  Utah  passed  into  history. 

First  State  Legislature. — Immediately  after  the  exercises 
in  the  Tabernacle,  the  first  and  special  session  of  the  State 
Legislature  convened  at  the  Salt  Lake  City  and  County  Build- 
ing, the  regular  place  of  assembly  for  the  local  law  workers  un- 
til the  completion  of  the  State  Capitol.  George  M.  Cannon  was 
President  of  the  Senate,  and  Presley  Denney,  Speaker  of  the 
House.  It  devolved  upon  this  Legislature  to  elect  two  United 
States  Senators,  one  for  four  years  and  the  other  for  one  year, 
according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Frank 
J.  Cannon  was  given  the  long  term,  and  Arthur  Brown  the 
short  term,  by  the  Republican  majority  of  the  Joint  Assembly. 
Everything  necessary  was  done  to  set  in  motion  the  machinery 
of  the  State  Government,  and  the  alloted  ninety  days  allowed 
by  the  State  Constitution  for  this  special  session,  were  more 
than  consumed  by  the  proceedings.  Each  subsequent  biennial 
session  was  to  be  limited  to  sixty  days. 

Escheated  Real  Estate  Returned. — Statehood  year  was 
made  memorable  to  the  Latter-day  Saints  by  the  return  of  the 
Church's  real  property,  taken  by  the  Federal  Government  un- 
der the  provisions  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  Act.  The  confis- 

*Governor  Heber  M.  Wells,  son  of  General  Daniel  H.  Wells,  was 
born  in  Salt  Lake  City,  August  11,  1859.  Of  versatile  gifts,  including 
a  marked  predilection  for  the  drama,  he  early  displayed  aptitude  for 
clerical  and  executive  work,  and  was  for  many  years  City  Recorder, 
also  serving  frequently  as  Minute  Clerk  and  Chief  Clerk  in  the  Legis- 
lature. In  1895  he  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
elected  over  Judge  Henry  P.  Henderson,  Democrat,  in  the  Fourth 
Precinct  of  Salt  Lake  City.  His  Democratic  opponent  for  Governor 
was  John  T.  Caine,  whom  he  had  succeeded  as  City  Recorder  when 
the  latter  became  Utah's  Delegate  in  Congress. 


THE   FORTY-FIFTH   STATE. 


563 


cated  personal  property  was  already  restored,  and  now  a  joint 
resolution  of  Senate  and  House,  approved  by  President  Cleve- 
land March  28,  1896,  returned  in  like  manner  the  escheated 
real  estate. 

In  September,  1894,  President  Cleveland  had  supple- 
mented President  Harrison's  proclamation  of  amnesty,  by 
granting  pardon  and  restoring  civil  rights  to  all  persons  dis- 
franchised by  the  anti-polygamy  laws,  excepting  such  as  had 
not  complied  with  the  terms  laid  down  by  his  predecessor. 
Congress  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Nation  had  previously 
decided  that  polygamous  children  born  within  a  year  after 
the  passage  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  law,  were  legitimate  and 
entitled  to  inherit  after  their  fathers.  Governor  Wells,  in  an 


FEDERAL  BUILDING,   SALT  LAKE   CITY. 

early  message  to  the  Utah  Legislature,  recommended  the  en- 
actment of  a  law  legitimating  polygamous  children  born  be- 
fore the  first  of  January,  1897;  and  such  a  measure  was  ac- 
cordingly passed  and  approved. 

Political  Pot-Boilings. — Meanwhile  there  were  various 
mutations  in  the  field  of  politics.  The  Democratic  Territorial 
Convention,  held  at  Ogden  in  the  autumn  of  1895,  had  nom- 
inated by  acclamation  Moses  Thatcher,  and  Joseph  L.  Raw- 
lins  for  United  States  Senators,  to  be  voted  for  in  the  first 
Joint  Assembly  of  the  State ;  but  the  Republicans  having  a 
majority  in  that  body,  Cannon  and  Brown  were  chosen,  as  al- 
ready mentioned.  In  April,  1896,  the  General  Authorities  of 


510    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  issued  their 
"Political  Manifesto,"  requiring  leading  men  of  that  organiza- 
tion, before  accepting  civic  office  the  duties  of  which  would 
interfere  with  their  ecclesiastical  engagements,  to  obtain  con- 
sent from  those  above  them  in  the  Priesthood.  Mr.  Thatcher, 
refusing  to  sign  this  declaration,  or  to  be  governed  by  it,  was 
no  longer  upheld  as  one  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve.  In  pro- 
test against  the  Church's  attitude,  which,  though  general,  they 
interpreted  as  favoring  the  Republican  cause,  the  Democrats 
reconvened  their  Ogden  convention  and  passed  resolutions  of 
disapproval. 

Legislature  of  1897. — Pursuant  to  action  taken  at  the  spe- 
cial session  on  Inauguration  Day,  the  Utah  State  Legislature 
opened  its  first  regular  session  at  Salt  Lake  City,  on  Janu- 
ary 11,  1897.  Aquilla  Nebeker 
was  President  of  the  Senate, 
and  John  M.  Perkins  Speaker 
of  the  House.  By  that  time  the 
political  complexion  of  the 
law-making  body  had  changed, 
the  Republican  majority  of 
1896  having  been  superseded 
by  a  Democratic  majority,  ow- 
ing to  the  revulsion  of  feeling 
throughout  the  West  over  the 
attitude  of  the  National  Repub- 
lican Party  on  the  silver  ques- 
tion. The  Utah  Democracy 
elected  not  only  a  majority  of 
the  Legislature,  but  also  the 
Representative  in  Congress; 
Clarence  E.  Allen  being  suc- 
ceeded by  William  H.  King.* 

Rawlins  Chosen  Senator. — 
Early  in  1897  the  Joint  Assem- 
bly was  the  scene  of  a  spirited 
contest  for  the  election  of  a 
United  States  Senator,  to  succeed  Arthur  Brown,  whose  term 
was  drawing  to  a  close.  Day  after  day  the  balloting  con- 
tinued, and  at  last  Joseph  L.  Rawlins,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  was 

*At  the  St.  Louis  Convention,  where  William  McKinley  was  nom- 
inated for  President  (June,  1896),  a  plank  had  been  inserted  in  the 
platform,  repudiating  bi-metallism  and  favoring  the  single  gold  stand- 
ard. This  action  caused  the  Utah  delegates,  Frank  J.  Cannon,  Clarence 
E.  Allen,  and  Thomas  Kearns,  to  walk  out  of  the  Convention.  At  the 
same  time  two  other  Western  delegates,  Henry  M.  Teller,  of  Colorado, 
and  Fred  T.  Dubois,  of  Idaho,  also  severed  their  relations  with  the 
Republican  Party. 


WILLIAM  H.  KING 


THE    FORTY-FIFTH    STATE. 


chosen  over  his  principal  rival,  Moses  Thatcher,  of  Logan. 
Nearly  the  entire  vote  of  the  Joint  Assembly — eighteen  Sen- 
ators and  forty-five  Representatives — was  divided  between 
Rawlins  and  Thatcher.  The  final  ballot  stood :  Rawlins,  thirty- 
two;  Thatcher,  twenty-nine;  scattering,  two. 

Senator  Rawlins  took  his  seat  in  the  upper  house  of  Con- 
gress   on  March  4th  of  the  same  year.     As  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Buildings 
and    Grounds,    he    introduced  ' 
bills  for  the  erection  of  Federal 
buildings     at    Salt    Lake    City 
and  Ogden ;  the  former  to  cost 
half  a  million  dollars,  and  the 
latter,   two   hundred   thousand 
dollars       Both     measures    be- 
came laws,  and  in  due  time  the 
structures  were  reared  and  oc- 
cupied by  the  Government  of- 
fices in  these  cities. 

The  Utah  Jubilee.— Gov- 
ernor Wells,  in  his  earliest 
messages  to  the  Legislature, 
recommended  the  holding  of 
an  Inter-Mountain  Fair,  to 
commemorate  the' first  half  cen- 
tury since  the  arrival  of  the 
Pioneers  in  Salt  Lake  Valley. 
Subsequently,  under  authority 
given  by  the  people's  represen- 
tatives, he  appointed  commis- 
sioners, fifteen  in  number,  to  conduct  the  celebration.  The 
Semi-Centennial  Commission,  as  it  was  called,  elected  as  its 
executive  officers,  Spencer  Clawson,  chairman;  E.  G.  Rognon, 
secretary ;  and  Mrs.  George  Y.  Wallace,  treasurer.  The  other 
members  were  Edward  F.  Colburn,  William  B.  Preston,  Hor- 
ace G.  Whitney,  Elias  A.  Smith,  Jacob  Moritz,  William  A. 
Nelden,  H.  H.  Spencer,  Reed  Smoot,  John  D.  Spencer,  Miss 
Cora  Hooper,  Miss  Emily  Katz,  and  Mrs.  R.  C.  Easton ;  all  of 
Salt  Lake  City  except  H.  H.  Spencer,  Mr.  Smobt,  and  Mrs. 
Easton,  representing  Ogden,  Prove,  and  Logan  respectively. 
The  Commission  appointed  a  number  of  aids,  such  as  Direc- 
tor General  Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  and  Grand  Marshal  Nat.  M. 
Brigham.  H.  F.  McGarvie  was  Assistant  Director  General, 
and  L.  C.  Johnson  Assistant  Secretary.  Henry  W.  Naisbitt 
and  Orson  F.  Whitney  were  the  historians.  The  Governor 
appointed  County  Commisioners,  representing  all  parts  of  the 
State.  A  fund  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  Jubilee  was  pro- 


SPENCER   CLAWFON 


512    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


vided  by  Legislative  appropri- 
ation and  by  contributions 
from  various  sources,  about 
seventy  thousand  dollars  being 
realized.  The  Commissioners 
served  without  pay. 

Leading  Men  Invited. — 
The  leading  men  of  the  Nation 
and  of  the  several  States  and 
Territories  were  invited  to  the 
festivities.  Aniung  those  who 
responded  in  person  was  Wil- 
liam Jennings  Bryan,  who  was 
accompanied  by  his  wife.  Both 
were  numbered  among  the 
guests  of  honor.  The  distin- 
guished Nebraskan  was  not  an 
entire  stranger  to  Utah,  having 
previously  spoken  on  the  silver 
question  at  the  Salt  Lake  The- 
atre, and  presided  over  the 
ninth  session  of  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  Commercial  Con- 
gress, held  in  the  Assemblv 


WILLIAM  J.   BRYAN. 


PRESIDENT  McKINLEY. 


Hall  at  Salt  Lake  City. 

A  special  invitation,  sent 
by  Governor  Wells  to  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  was  delivered 
at  the  White  House  by  a  com- 
mittee consisting  of  President 
George  Q.  Cannon,  Justice 
George  W.  Bartch,  Colonel  P. 
H.  Lannan,  Senator  Frank  J. 
Cannon,  Senator  Joseph  L. 
Rawlins,  and  Representative 
William  H.  King.  The  Presi- 
dent was  much  pleased,  and 
only  the  fact  that  Congress 
was  in  session,  and  he  could 
not  absent  himself  from  his 
post  of  duty,  prevented  his 
presence  at  the  celebration. 

The  Surviving  Veterans. 
— All  the  surviving  Pioneers 
and  Emigrants  of  1847  were  in- 
vited to  the  Jubilee  as  guests 


THE    FORTY-FIFTH   STATE. 


513 


of  the  State.  Those  who  came  were  given  free  transportation 
from  and  to  their  homes.  Seven  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
responses  were  received,  but  not  half  that  number  were  able 
to  attend.  Twenty-eight  of  the  original  Pioneers  were  then 
living,  and  twenty-six  were  present  at  the  great  festival.  The 
twenty-eight  survivors  were  Wilford  Woodruff,  Aaron  F. 
Farr,  George  W.  Brown,  Thomas  P.  Cloward,  Lyman  Curtis, 
Isaac  P.  Decker,  Franklin  B. 
Dewey,  Ozro  F.  Eastman,  Jo- 
seph Egbert,  Green  Flake,  John 
S.  Gleason,  Stephen  H.  God- 
dard,  Charles  A.  Harper, 
Stephen  Kelsey,  Levi  N.  Ken- 
dall, Conrad  Kleinman,  John 
W.  Norton,  Charles  Shumway, 
Andrew  P.  Shumway,  William 
C.  A.  Smoot,  James  W.  Stew- 
art, Norman  Taylor,  Horace 
Thornton,  William  P.  Vance, 
Hensen  Walker,  Sr.,  George 
Wardle,  George  Woodward, 
and  Lorenzo  S.  Young. 

The  Pioneer  Monument. 
• — The  first  of  the  five  days  de- 
voted to  the  Jubilee  saw  the 
unveiling  of  the  Pioneer  Mon- 
ument. That  day— July  20th 
—was  ushered  in  with  the 
booming  of  cannon,  a  signal 
for  the  gathering  of  the  veter- 
ans of  1847  on  the  Old  Fort  EVAN  STEPHENS. 
Square,  and  their  march  (318  in  number)  to  the  junction  of 
Main  and  South  Temple  streets,  where,  in  the  presence  of  an 
immense  throng,  the  monument  was  unveiled  and  dedicated 
by  President  Wilford  Woodruff,  amid  cheers  and  the  roar  of 
artillery.  The  monument,  designed  by  Cyrus  Edwin  Dallin, 
a  native  of  Springville,  Utah,  was  presented  to  the  State  by 
the  Brigham  Young  Memorial  Association,  under  whose  aus- 
pices it  had  been  erected  by  popular  subscription.  James  H. 
Moyle  made  the  presentation  speech,  and  Governor  Wells  the 
speech  of  acceptance.  An  oration  by  Judge  Goodwin,  editor 
of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune;  an  address  by  Director  General 
Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  the  oldest  surviving  son  of  the  great 
Pioneer;  the  singing  of  "America"  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir, 
and  the  reading  of  a  congratulatory  telegram  from  Dallin,  the 
sculptor,  then  in  Paris,  were  among  the  features  of  •  the 
occasion.  Bishop  Lawrence  Scanlan,  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  closed  the  ceremonies  with  a  benediction. 

32 


514    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

The  Tabernacle  Reception. — During  the  afternoon  of  that 
day,  at  a  reception  in  the  Tabernacle,  a  badge  of  honor  was 


THE   PIONEER   MONUMENT. 

presented  to  each  veteran  as  a  gift  from  the  State,  the  pres- 
entation being  directed  by  the  Jubilee  Commission,  and  made 
by  twenty-seven  young  ladies,  representing  the  twenty-seven 
counties.  The  badge,  which  was  of  gold,  artistically  designed 
and  wrought,  served  as  a,  passport  to  all  the  festivities  and 
amusements  controlled  by  the  Commission.  At  the  reception 
a  poem  written  by  N.  Albert  Sherman,  and  entitled  "The  Pio- 
neers of  Utah,"  was  read  by  David  McKenzie.  In  the  evening, 
at  the  same  place,  "The  Pioneer  Ode" — words  by  Orson  F. 
Whitney,  music  by  Evan  Stephens — was  sung  by  the  Taber- 
nacle Choir  (one  thousandvoices),  assisted  by  the  Jubilee 
Chorus  and  the  Knights  ofPythias  Band,  all  led  by  Pro- 


THE    FORTY-FIFTH    STATE. 


515 


fessor  Stephens,  with  Joseph  J. 
Daynes  at  the  organ. 

Additional  Features. — Oth- 
ers who  lent  their  talents  to 
the  varied  program  of  the  Ju- 
bilee were  B.  H.  Roberts,  R.  C. 
Easton,  Viola  Pratt  Gillette, 
Madam  Amanda  Swenson, 
Professors  Thomas  Radcliffe, 
Anton  C.  Pederson  and  Charles 
J.  Thomas;  also  the  United 
States  Twenty-fourth  Infantry 
Band,  and  the  Ladies'  Philo- 
mena  Club,  of  Denver. 

A  point  of  special  interest 
during  and  after  the  Fair,  was 
the  Hall  of  Relics,  built  by  the 
Jubilee  Commission  on  the  site 
of  the  old  Council  House,  now 
occupied  by  the  Deseret  News 
Building.  An  elegant  though 
transient  edifice,  planned  after 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG,  JR. 


the  Parthenon  at  Athens,  and 
suggesting  in  chaste  appear- 
ance and  classic  outlines  the 
structures  composing  the  won- 
derful "White  City"  at  Chi- 
cago, the  Hall  of  Relics,  as  its 
name  implies,  was  the  reposi- 
tory of  collections  of  curios 
and  souvenirs  of  Pioneer  times, 
gathered  from  many  sources, 
catalogued,  and  placed  on  ex- 
hibition. 

Among  the  open  air  pres- 
entations were  "The  Pageant 
of  Progress,"  illustrating  the 
growth  of  Utah  during  fifty 
years;  "The  Children's  Pa- 
rade," in  which  ten  thousand 
pupils  of  the  district  and  sab- 
bath schools  took  part;  "The 
Illuminated  Parade,  or  Great 
Salt  Lake,  Real  and  Fanciful ;" 
"The  Parade  of  the  Counties," 
comprising  floats  carrying  natural  and  industrial  products- 
and  finally  "The  Pioneer  Parade,"  the  crowning  feature  of 


C.  E.  DALLIN. 


516    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

the    festival,    and    probably  the  most  extensive    and    varied 
spectacle  of  its  kind  ever  seen  in  the  West. 

At  one  of  the  gatherings  in  the  Tabernacle,  President 
Woodruff  was  crowned  with  a  wreath  of  flowers  by  a  beau- 
tiful little  girl,  a  granddaughter  of  President  John  Taylor. 
On  the  day  of  the  Children's  Parade,  the  little  ones,  as  they 
passed  the  Pioneer  Monument,  strewed  flowers  upon  it  until 
the  base  was  hidden.  It  remained,  however,  for  the  grand 


FEDERAL  BUILDING,  OGDEN. 

reproduction  of  the  Pioneer  Train  and  Hand-Cart  Company  to 
create  the  climax  of  pathos  and  bring  tears  to  almost  every 
eye.  In  a  display  of  fireworks  from  Capitol  Hill,  on  the  night 
of  the  Twenty-fourth,  the  Jubilee  expired  in  a  blaze  of  glory. 
The  Book  of  the  Pioneers. — As  a  fitting  finale  to  their 
splendid  labors,  the  Commission  authorized  the  compilation 
of  "The  Book  of  the  Pioneers,"  a  unique  publication  in  two  vol- 
umes, bound  in  native  leather,  gold,  silver,  and  copper,  and 
containing,  in  addition  to  historical  and  descriptive  articles  on 
the  Jubilee,  the  signatures  and  biographical  outlines  of  all 
surviving  Pioneers  and  Immigrants  who  came  to  Salt  Lake 
Valley  during  the  last  three  years  of  the  "forties,"  together 
with  full  lists  and  other  data  pertaining  to  the  original  Pioneer 
Company.  These  volumes  were  compiled  by  the  author  of  this 
History,  from  materials  mostly  collated  by  Henry  W.  Nais- 
bitt.  The  Book  is  now  in  the  public  archives,  having  been 
presented  to  the  State  by  the  Commissioners  who  conducted 
so  successfully  the  Utah  Pioneer  Jubilee. 


XXXV. 

WAR  AND  POLITICS. 

1898-1916. 

Enlistment  of  Volunteers. — At  the  outbreak  of  the  Span- 
ish War  the  Federal  Government  called  upon  Utah  for  five 
hundred  volunteers,  to  serve  in  the  Nation's  cause.  It  may 
be  mentioned  as  a  coincidence  that  the  same  number  of  men 
were  required  from  the  prospective  founders  of  this  State  at 
the  time  of  the  enlistment  of  the  "Mormon"  Battalion.  Then 
it  was  the  Government's  recruiting  officer  who  made  known 
the  wishes  of  his  superiors  to  a 
people  encamped  upon  the 
Iowa  frontier.  Now  it  was  the 
Governor  of  Utah  who  issued 
a  proclamation,  inviting  young 
and  able-bodied  men  to  enlist. 
Willard  Young,  Richard  W. 
Young,  John  Q.  Cannon,  Frank 
A.  Grant,  Ray  C.  Naylor,  Jo- 
seph E.  Caine,  George  E. 
Downey,  and  George  W.  Gibbs 
were  sent  as  recruiting  officers 
to  the  principal  towns.  On 
May  1st,  1898,  five  days  aftei 
the  date  of  the  proclamation, 
Governor  Wells  telegraphed  to 
the  War  Department  that  the 
full  quota  of  troops  had  been 
obtained. 

The  Utah  Batteries. — Utah 
possessed  eight  field  guns  of 
the  latest  model,  procured  from 
the  War  Department  at  the 
time  of  the  reorganization  of  the  militia  under  Governor  West. 
It  was  largely  owing  to  this  fact  that  the  State  was  called  upon 
to  furnish  two  batteries  of  light  artillery  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  with  Spain.  They  were  mustered  into  service  at 
Fort  Douglas,  on  the  9th  of  May,  by  Lieutenant  Briant  H. 
Wells,  of  the  United  States  Army.  Battery  A  was  organized 
with  Richard  W.  Young,  and  Battery  B  with  Frank  A.  Grant, 
as  Captain.  The  former,  who  had  seen  service  in  the  regular 
army  as  Lieutenant  of  Artillery  and  Captain  in  the  Corps  of 
Judge  Advocates,  has  already  received  mention  in  these  pages. 
Captain  Grant  was  originally  a  Canadian,  a  graduate  of  the 
old  Kingston  Military  Academy,  and  had  resided  in  this  State 
since  1889,  engaged  in  mining,  real  estate  and  insurance  busi- 


CAPTAIN   R.   W.  YOUNG. 


518    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

ness.     He  was  Colonel  of  the  First  Infantry  in  the  Utah  Na- 
tional Guard.* 

The  A  and  B  Batteries,  consisting  mainly  of  "Mormon" 
and  "Gentile"  youths,  many  of  them  sons  of  sires  who  had 
built  up  the  State,  were  ordered  to  report  to  General  Merritt, 
at  San  Francisco.  They  left  Salt  Lake  City  on  the  20th  of 
May,  and  under  command  of  General  Francis  V.  Green 


*"The  Nauvoo  Legion,"  as  the  Utah  Militia  was  originally  styled, 
had  been  rendered  inactive  by  Governor  Shaffer's  prohibitory  procla- 
mation of  September,  1870,  and  had  been  formally  abolished  by  the 
Edmunds-Tucker  Act  in  1887.  The  Legislature,  in  March,  1894,  auth- 
orized the  Governor  to  enroll  "The  National  Guard  of  Utah,"  to  con- 
sist of  not  more  than  three  regiments  of  infantry,  two  regiments  of 
cavalry,  and  two  batteries  of  light  artillery.  Within  the  next  seven 
months  the  artillery,  with  fourteen  companies  of  infantry  and  three 
troops  of  cavalry,  were  enlisted.  During  the  years  the  Territory  had 
been  without  a  militia  organization  a  credit  of  about  eighty  thousand 
dollars  had  accumulated  under  the  Act  of  Congress  making  annual 
appropriations  for  the  National  Guard.  Seventy-two  thousand  dollars 
of  this  amount  was  now  expended  for  uniforms  and  equipment.  The 
infantry  were  armed  with  Springfield  rifles,  the  cavalry  with  sabers 
and  carbines,  and  the  batteries  with  eight  steel  cannon  and  two  Gat- 
ling  guns.  The  counties  of  Salt  Lake,  Weber,  Utah,  Davis,  Cache, 
Box  Elder,  Morgan,  Tooele,  Sanpete,  Sevier,  and  Garfield  were  repre- 
sented in  this  enlistment/ 

The  first  service  rendered  by  the  Guard  was  in  connection  with 
one  of  the  industrial  "armies"  of  that  period,  which  passed  through 
Utah  a  few  weeks  after  the  enactment  of  the  new  militia  law.  Twelve 
hundred  men,  without  money,  supplies,  or  any  means  of  subsistence, 
organized  by  "General"Kelley  in  California,  had  been  loaded  into  freight 
cars  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  and  brought,  at  the  rate  of  fifty 
cents  each,  as  far  as  Ogderu;  thence  to  make  their  Way,  as  best  they  could, 
to  Washington,  D.  C,  and  join  with  similar  bodies  in  demanding  of 
Congress  legislation  for  the  relief  of  the  working  classes.  Finding 
that  no  provision  had  been  made  for  transporting  the  men  eastward, 
and  fearing  that  they  would  remain  and  become  a  public  charge,  Gov- 
ernor West  called  out  the  militia  and  put  the  so-called  army  under 
guand.  In  taking  this  step  he  acted  in  harmony  with  the  authorities 
of  Ogden  City  and  Weber  County.  Mayor  Baskin,  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
also  tendered  the  services  of  thirty  men  commanded  by  the  Chief  of 
Police.  Orders  of  court,  issued  by  Chief  Justice  Merritt  and  Associate 
Justice  Miner,  forbade  the  strangers  to  remain  in  Utah,  or  to  leave  the 
Ogden  depot  grounds  until  arrangements  could  be  made  for  their 
transportation.  The  result  was  that  Kelley  and  his  followers,  fed  and 
supplied  with  money  by  the  warm-hearted  people  of  the  Junction  City, 
were  put  upon  Union  Pacific  cars  at  Uintah,  and  carried  out  of  the 
Territory. 

During  May  a  like  "army"  of  three  or  four  hundred  men,  organ- 
ized in  Utah  by  "General"  Carter,  took  possession  of  a  Union  Pacific 
train  at  Lehi,  and  ran  it  upon  the  Rio  Grande  Western  (D.  &  R.  G.) 
track  as  far  as  Provo,  where  it  was  derailed.  The  Industrials  held 
the  train,  refusing  to  surrender  it  to  the  officers  of  the  road,  and  this 
caused  further  intervention  by  the  Governor  and  the  militia.  Carter 
and  some  of  his  men  were  arrested  and  imprisoned.  The  remainder, 
riding  upon  freight  trains,  finally  reached  Colorado,  where  they  dis- 
banded. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


519 


CAPTAIN  F.  A.  GRANT. 


sailed  as  part  of  the  second  ex- 
pedition to  the  Philippine 
Islands.  A  third  battery,  with 
Frank  W.  Jennings  as  Captain, 
was  organized  on  the  12th  of 
July.  They  were  also  ordered 
to  San  Francisco,  and  per- 
formed garrison  duty  in  the 
forts  of  that  harbor.  Upon  the 
enlistment  of  Battery  C,  the 
Utah  Artillery  became  a  bat- 
talion, with  Richard  W.  Young 
as  Major  in  command. 

Other  Military  Organiza- 
tions.— Utah  also  raised  for  ser- 
vice at  that  time  a  troop  of  cav- 
alry commanded  by  Captain 
Joseph  E,  Caine ;  and  Troop  I 
of  Torrey's  Rough  Riders,  with 
John  Q.  Cannon  as  Captain.  Both 
these  young  officers  were  sons  of 
men  who  had  represented  Utah 

in  Congress.     Captain  Caine's  cavalry,  ordered  to  the  Pacific 
Coast,   rendered   valuable   service   in'  patroling  the   Yosemite 

and  Sequoia  national  parks. 
The  Rough  Riders  joined  their 
regiment  at  Cheyenne,  Wyom- 
ing, and  proceeded  thence  to 
Jacksonville,  Florida,  where 
they  encamped  with  other 
troops,  awaiting  any  call  that 
might  come  from  the  seat  of 
war. 

Willard  Young,  another 
Utah  man,  was  appointed  by 
President  McKinley  Colonel  of 
the  Second  United  States  Vol- 
unteer Engineers.  A  son  of 
President  Brigham  Young,  he, 
like  his  nephew,  Richard  W., 
was  a  West  'Point  graudate. 
He  had  been  Captain  in  the 
United  States  Engineers,  doing 
service  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  When  the  war -broke 
out  he  was  Brigadier  General 


CAPTAIN    J.    E.    CAINE. 


in 


the    Utah    National    Guard. 


520    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


COLONEL  WILLARD  YOUNG. 


His  new  command  consisted  of 

twelve  hundred  men,  recruited 

from    various    States.      Of   the 

fifty  furnished  by  Utah,  all  but 

two  were  assigned  to  duty  in 

the  Hawaiian  Islands.    Colonel 

Young    went    with    the    main 

body  of  his  regiment  to  Mon- 

tauk  Point,  Long  Island,  where 

the  engineers  served  efficiently 

in  preparing  a  camp  for  soldiers 

returning    from    Cuba.      They 

were     afterwards     ordered     to 

that  country,  and  were  the  first 

United  States  troops  to  arrive 

at  Havana.   There,  in  December, 

1898,    they    began    to    prepare 

quarters  for  the  American  army. 
Utah      at      the      Front.— 

Lieutenant         (now        Major) 

Briant  H.  Wells,  named  in  con- 
nection with  the  mustering  in 

of  the   Utah   batteries,   was    a 

younger   brother   to    Governo 

Wells.  He  served  with  his  reg- 
iment, the  Second  United 
States  Infantry,  under  General 
Shafter  in  Cuba,  and  was 
wounded  at  the  battle  of  Santi- 
ago. The  Twenty-fourth  In- 
fantry, a  colored  regiment  sta- 
tioned at  Fort  Douglas,  also 
took  part  in  that  engagement. 
Another  native  son,  Ensign 
Henry  A.  Pearson,  of  Draper, 
was  with  Admiral  Dewey  in 
the  battle  of  Manila  Bay. 

Pioneer  Day  in  1898  was 
devoted  throughout  Utah  to 
the  holding  of  memorial  ser- 
vices for  the  American  sailors 
who  went  down  with  the 
"Maine."  The  people  of  the 
State  gave  a  generous  contribu- 
tion toward  the  erection  of  a 
national  monument  in  honor  of 
LIEUTENANT  WELLS.  the  dead. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


521 


Batteries  A  and  B  sailed  for  the  Philippines  on  the  15th 
of  June,  reaching  their  destination  about  the  middle  of  July. 
They  disembarked  at  Camp  Dewey,  on  the  shore  of  Manila 
Bay.  The  Spanish  army  was  _ 
then  cooped  up  in  Manila,  al- 
most entirely  surrounded  by 
the  Philippine  forces  under 
Aguinaldo.  A  detachment 
from  each  battery,  thrown  into 
the  trenches  half  a  mile  south 
of  the  Spanish  fortifications,  re- 
pelled attacks  upon  the  Ameri- 
can lines  during  the  last  night 
of  July  and  through  the  suc- 
ceeding fortnight.  On  the  13th 
of  August  the  Utah  artillery 
joined  with  Admiral  Dewey  in 
bombarding  Fort  San  Antonio 
de  Abad  and  the  Spanish 
'trenches.  The  combined  Amer- 
ican and  Filipino  attack  re- 
sulted in  the  capture  of  the 
city. 

Subsequently  the  Utah  bat- 
teries were  assigned,  with  other 
artillery  from  the  regular 
forces,  to  Major  Me  Arthur's 
division  of  the  Eighth  Army  Corps,  and  Major  Young  be- 
came divisional  chief  of  artillery.  The  batteries,  each  orig- 
inally comprising  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  officers  and 
men,  were  now  recruited  to  their  full  strength  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-three.  At  the  time  of  the  Filipino  outbreak 
(February,  1899)  they  rendered  most  efficient  service,  taking 
part  in  numerous  engagements  against  the  insurgent  forces. 
Captain  Grant  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  several  gun- 
boats operating  on  Manila  Bay  and  in  the  rivers  and  lakes, 
and  with  other  Utah  soldiers  gave  valiant  naval  assistance  to 
the  army. 

Major  Young  relinquished  his  command  of  the  Battalion 
in  June  of  that  year,  having  been  appointed  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  Captain  Grant  was 
appointed  Major  to  fill  the  vacancy.  Lieutenant  John  F. 
Critchlow  then  became  Captain  of  Battery  B ;  Lieutenant 
Edgar  A.  Wedgewood  having  been  made  captain  of. Battery 
A  some  time  before. 

Return  of  the  Volunteers. — Several  weeks  later  the  Utah 
troops,  honorably  relieved  from  duty  in  the  Philippines,  sailed 


CAPTAIN   E.   A.   WEDGEWOOD. 


522    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


for  San  Francisco,  where  they  were  mustered  out  of  service 
on  the  16th  of  August.  They  reached  Salt  Lake  City  on  the 
19th  and  were  greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  their  grateful  and 
admiring  fellow  citizens.  Major  Young  and  Major  Grant,  the 
former  on  leave  from  his  judicial  post,  both  rode  at  the  head 
of  the  military  column  from  the  railroad  depot  to  Liberty 
Park,  the  main  scene  of  the  festivities.  It  was  a  general  holi- 
day, and  other  towns  held  similar  celebrations  to  welcome 

home  their  returning  heroes. 

Those  who  Fell. — Among 
the  Utah  men  killed  in  the 
Philippines,  was  Dr.  Harry  A. 
Young,  of  Salt  Lake  City.  He 
had  been  Quarter-master  Ser- 
geant of  Battery  A,  and  his 
commission  as  First  Lieutenant 
and  Assistant  Sergeant  of  the 
Utah  Artillery  was  on  the  way 
when  he  was  slain.  The  new 
titles  were  afterwards  con- 
firmed upon  him  by  Congress. 
Others  who  fell  in  battle  were 
Sergeant  Ford  Fisher,  Corporal 
John  G.  Young,  Private  Wil- 
helm  T.  Goodman,  of  Battery 
A;  and  Corporal  M.  C.  Jensen, 
Privates  George  A.  Hudson, 
Fred  A.  Bumiller,  and  Max 
Maddison,  of  Battery  B.  Those 
dying  from  other  causes  were 
Corporals  George  O.  Larson 
and  John  T.  Kennedy,  Privates 
Charles  Parson,  Oscar  A.  Feninger,  and  Richard  H.  Ralph. 
Many  of  the  volunteers  were  wounded  during  the  various 
fights  and  skirmishes.  The  bodies  of  Harry  A.  Young,  John 
G.  Young,  Ford  Fisher,  Charles  Parsons,  and  Wilhelm  T. 
Goodman  were  brought  home  for  burial. 

Judge  Goodwin's  Tribute. — No  troops  in  the  Philippines 
achieved  more  distinction  for  bravery  and  efficiency  than  the 
Utah  Batteries.  Judge  C.  C.  Goodwin,  in  the  course  of  an 
eloquent  tribute,  said  of  them:  "The  necessities  of  the  war 
made  them  ubiquitous;  they  were  everywhere,  on  river,  on 
land ;  and  when  a  stronghold  was  to  be  stormed,  their  guns 
first  cleared  the  way,  until,  in  an  army  where  'all  were  heroes, 
the  men  of  Utah  made  for  themselves  a  conspicuous  name. 
They  earned  it,  for  they  never  retreated,  never  lost  a  battle  or 


DR.    HARRY  A.   YOUNG. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


523 


a  flag,  never  started  for  the  foe  that  they  did  not  scatter  it  as 
the  wind  scatters  the  chaff  from  the  threshing  floor.  When 
their  terms  of  enlistment  expired  they  fought  on,  week  after 
week,  until  their  places  could  be  supplied.  The  record  of  the 
volunteers  is  nowhere  dimmed.  They  went  away  boys;  they 
returned  men.  They  made  for  themselves  great  names,  and 
by  their  deeds  exalted  the  name  of  their  State  .  They  have 
won  for  themselves  an  appreciative  people's  gratitude,  a  Na- 
tion's praise." 

The  Carbon  County  Strike. 
—In  November,  1903,  a  strike 
of  coal  miners  in  Carbon 
County  created  a  situation  of 
sufficient  gravity  to  justify  the 
calling  out  of  several  companies 
of  militia.  The  strikers,  em- 
ployed by  the  Utah  Fuel  Com- 
pany, where  members  of  the  so- 
ciety known  as  "The  United 
Mine  Workers  of  America,"  un- 
der the  orders  of  whose  presi- 
dent, John  Mitchell,  the  strike 
took  place.  Most  of  the  twelve 
hundred  men  leaving  work  were 
Italians.  Few  were  native 
Americans  or  permanent  citi- 
zens of  Utah.  It  was  a  sympa- 
thetic strike,  designed  to  influ- 
ence the  outcome  of  a  similar 
movement  in  Colorado.  Here 
there  was  no  real  grievance, 
every  privilege  for  which  the 

Colorado  miners  were  contending  being  enjoyed  by  the  miners 
in  this  State.  Said  Governor  Wells :  "While  I  am  an  advocate 
of  the  legitimate  rights  of  organized  labor,  I  object  to  and  will 
lesist  any  attempt  to  visit  upon  the  people  of  this  State  the 
sins  of  another  State.  We  were  foremost  to  legalize  the  eight- 
hour  day  in  Utah,  and  instead  of  applauding,  assisting,  and  re- 
specting us  for  it,  these  agitators  are  seeking  to  punish  us.  It 
will  not  do.  As  long  as  I  am  Governor,  I  shall  resist  the  tyran- 
nical and  unlawful  interference  of  individuals  or  unions  with 
the  peaceable  pursuits  of  the  citizens  of  this  State."  For  the 
protection  of  miners  who  desired  to  continue  at  work,  but 
were  threatened  with  violence  by  the  agitators  and  their  fol- 
lowers, the  Governor  sent  troops,  under  Brigader-General 
John  Q.  Cannon,  to  the  scene  of  trouble.  Detachments  were 
assigned  to  duty  at  Scofield,  Castle  Gate,  and  Sunnyside.  No 


GENERAL    CANNON. 


524    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


fighting  occurred,  though  a  number  of  persons  were  arrested, 
including  an  Italian,  one  Demolli,  and  a  woman  agitator  known 
as  "Mother  Jones."  The  militiamen  remained  on  duty  two 
months,  and  their  presence  gave  peace,  with  protection  to  life 
and  property.* 

Ecclesiastical  Changes. — So  much  for  military  matters  in 
the  new-fledged  State  of  Utah.  Turn  we  now  to  events  par- 
alleling some  of  those  already 
narrated.  In  September,  1898, 
occurred  the  death  of  President 
Wilford  Woodruff.  The  last 
public  act  of  the  aged  Pioneer 
was  the  delivery  of  a  speech,  on 
July  24th,  at  the  dedication  of 
Pioneer  Square  as  one  of  the 
parks  of  Salt  Lake  City.  A  few 
days  later  he  set  out  for  the  Pa- 
cific Coast,  and  was  there  taken 
ill,  breathing  his  last  at  the 
home  of  Colonel  Isaac  Trumbo. 
in  San  Francisco.  President 
Woodruff's  successor  was 
Lorenzo  Snow,  who  chose  for 
his  Counselors  those  of  his  pre- 
decessor. 

President  Snow's  tenure  of 
the  office  was  brief,  but  was 
characterized  by  great  activity. 
In  the  short  space  of  three 
years  he  and  his  associates,  by  the  exercise  of  rare  financial 
wisdom,  did  much  to  lift  from  the  shoulders  of  the  Church  a 
heavy  burden  of  debt,  largely  resulting  from  the  confiscation 
of  its  property  by  the  Government.  President  Snow  died  in 
October,  1901,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  First  Counselor, 
Joseph  F.  Smith ;  the  former  First  Counselor,  George  Q.  Can- 
non, having  passed  away  in  the  preceding  April.  President 
Smith,  choosing  John  R.  Winder  and  Anthon  H.  Lund  for 
Counselors,  began  his  administration  on  the  17th  of  October. 
A  strong  and  forceful  character,  and  withal  a  sagacious  and 
careful  financier,  he  soon  had  the  Church  entirely  out  of  debt 
and  on  the  way  to  a  period  of  prosperity,  such  as  it  had  never 
experienced.! 

*Carbon  County  had  witnessed,  in  May,  1900,  a  very  disastrous 
explosion  in  the  coal  mines  at  Winter  Quarters,  near  Scofield.  About 
two  hundred  miners,  mostly  foreigners,  were  killed  in  this  terrible  ac- 
cident. 

tjudge   Goodwin,  former  editor  of  the  Tribune,  and  now  (1916) 


PRESIDENT   SMITH. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS : 


525 


1898,  witnessed  the  elec- 
as  the  candidate  of  the 


The  Roberts  Case. — November, 
tion  of  B.  H.  Roberts  to  Congress, 
Democratic  Party  of  Utah. 
On  the  same  ticket  Robert  N. 
Baskin  was  chosen  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  State.  Mr.  Roberts 
had  represented  Davis  County 
in  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion, and  was  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  influential  members 
of  that  body.  In  the  autumn  of 
1895  he  ran  for  Congress 
against  Clarence  E.  Allen,  Re- 
publican, and  met  defeat.  Nom- 
inated a  second  time  for  Rep- 
resentative, he  was  successful 
in  the  face  of  the  most  strenu- 
ous opposition. 

The  usual  partisan  influ- 
ences were  not  all  that  Mr. 
Roberts  had  to  contend  with ;  in 
addition  thereto,  a  charge  of 
polygamy  was  urged  against 
him.  The  agitation  became  so 
intense  and  wide-spread,  that 
the  Governor  of  the  State,  fearing  its  effect  upon  the  easily 
awakened  prejudice  of  the  Nation,  advised  the  people,  through 
the  press,  to  defeat  Mr.  Roberts.  But  all  to  no  purpose;  he 
was  triumphantly  elected,  and  that,  too,  by  "Gentile"  rather 

presiding  over  the  columns  of  Goodwin's  Weekly,  a  periodical  pub- 
lished at  Salt  Lake  City,  draws  the  following  pen  portrait  of  the  pres- 
ent-day "Mormon"  leader: 

"A  more  kindly  and  benevolent  man  has  seldom  held  an  exalted 
ecclesiastical  position  than  President  Joseph  F.  Smith,  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints.  Passing  down  the  seventy-seventh 
year  of  the  highway  of  life,  and  living  with  broad  tolerance  of  the 
affairs  of  men,  he  stands  a  commanding  influence  in  his  State.  To  his 
people  he  is  the  great  spiritual  leader.  To  men  at  large,  he  is  a  man 
of  wide  sympathies,  great  business  acumen,  and  a  born  leader  of  the 
great  institution  of  which  he  is  the  head.  One  who  has  known  him  for 
two  generations  says  of  him:  'Once  stern  and  unrelenting,  he  has  mel- 
lowed as  the  years  go  on,  until  he  sees  but  the  good  in  humanity,  and 
forgives  men  their  trespasses.'  "  "Under  his  direction  the  Church  has 
grown  in  power  until  it  is  accounted  one  of  the  most  perfectly  organ- 
ized bodies  in  existence.  As^Trustee  of  the  vast  properties  of  the 
Church,  he  has  become  one  of  its  greatest  financial  leaders.  His  life  all 
these  years  has  been  lived  with  great  simplicity,  constant  labor,  and 
great  personal  frugality.  He  stands  today  a  patriarch  ruling  with  a 
gentle  hand  over  a  people  blessed  with  such  prosperity  as  'few  reli- 
gions bodies  have  ever  known." 


REPRESENTATIVE  ROBERTS. 


526    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

than  by  "Mormon"  votes;  his  heaviest  majorities  being  in 
communities  almost  exclusively  non-"Mormon."  The  general 
returns  gave  him  a  plurality  of  five  thousand  six  hundred  and 
sixty-five.  The  scene  then  changed,  and  another  battle  was 
fought,  in  which  his  opponents  were  victorious. 

Excluded  from  Congress. — The  ultimate  defeat  of  the 
Utah  Representative  was  encompassed  mainly  through  the 
efforts  of  the  Ministerial  Association  of  Salt  Lake  City,  aided 
by  the  Tribune,  and  powerfully  re-inforced  by  churches,  wom- 
en's organizations,  and  other  influential  agencies  in  the  East. 
Hearst's  New  York  Journal,  foremost  among  sensational 
newspapers,  fiercely  assailed  Mr.  Roberts  upon  the  assump- 
tion that  a  religious  instead  of  a  political  organization  had 
elected  him.  The  wealthy  philanthropist,  Miss  Helen  Gould, 
was  persuaded  to  join  in  this  fight  against  the  so-called 
"menace  to  the  American  home,"  meaning  polygamy,  which 
became  the  slogan  of  the  nation-wide  campaign .  Mr.  Rob- 
erts and  others  of  his  faith  were*falsely  accused  of  aiming  to 
restore  the  inhibited  practice.  His  candidacy  was  pointed  to 
as  proof  that  the  "Mormon"  Church  had  determined  to  thrust 
this  objectionable  feature  down  the  throat  of  Congress;  and 
it  was  asserted  that  Utah,  by  permitting  his  election,  had 
broken  her  compact  with  the  Nation — a  compact  represented 
by  the  Enabling  Act  and  the  State  Constitution.  Both  these 
instruments  prohibited  plural  marriages,  but  were  silent  re- 
garding polygamous  living  under  relations  formed  prior  to 
the  issuance  of  the  Manifesto.  Mr.  Roberts  was  the  hus- 
band of  more  than  one  wife,  but  he  contended  that  his  marital 
status  was  irrelevant  to  the  issue.  As  the  duly  elected  candi- 
date, not  of  a  church,  but  of  a  political  party  comprising  "Gen- 
tile" as  well  as  "Mormon"  citizens,  who  had  chosen  him  to 
represent  the  State  in  Congress,  he  stood  squarely  upon  his 
right  and  demanded  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

But  nothing  could  quell  the  clamor,  nor  overcome  the  op- 
position arrayed  against  him.  The  House,  refusing  to  allow 
him  to  be  sworn  in,  referred  his  case  to  a  special  committee, 
a  majority  of  whom  recommended  that  he  be  not  seated. 
After  a  spirited  discussion,  in  the  course  of  which  a  strong  and 
eloquent  protest  was  voiced  by  the  Representative  elect,  the 
House,  on  the  25th  of  January,  1900,  voted  to  exclude  him. 
The  vote  stood  50  in  favor  of,  and  244  against,  the  gentleman 
from  Utah ;  36  members  not  voting. 

Representatives  King  and  Sutherland. — The  result  in  the 
Roberts  case  made  necessary  a  special  election,  which  took 
place  in  April,  when  William  H.  King  was  chosen  a  second 
time  Utah's  Representative  in  Congress.  His  term  was  neces- 
sarily brief,  the  recent  contest  having  consumed  the  greater 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


527 


part  of  the  period  for  which  Mr.  Roberts  had  been  elected. 
Judge  King  was  not  destined  to  succeed  himself.  At  the  reg- 
ular election  in  November,  the  Republicans  were  victorious, 
and  George  Sutherland  be- 
came Representative.  King 
and  Sutherland,  the  former 
a  "Mormon,"  the  latter  a 
"Gentile."  were  both  natives 
of  the  State  and  prominent 
lawyers  of  Salt  Lake  City. 

The  McCune  Candidacy. 
—The  same  election  that 
sent  Mr.  Roberts  to  Con- 
gress gave  a  Democratic  ma- 
jority to  the  Utah  Legis- 
lature, and  when  that  body 
convened  in  January,  1899,  it 
was  expected  that  a  United 
States  Senator  would  be 
chosen,  to  succeed  Frank  J. 
Cannon.  Mr.  Cannon  was 
then  a  Silver  Republican, 
seeking  re-election  by  fusion 
votes,  mostly  from  Weber 
County,  where  he  resided. 
The  leading  Democratic  candidate  was  Alfred  W.  McCune, 
a  wealthy  mining  man  of  Salt  Lake  City.  The  contest  was 
stubborn  and  protracted,  the  Democrats  being  much  divided. 
McCune  was  within  one  or  two  votes  of  election,  when,  just 
before  the  taking  of  the  122nd  ballot,  he  was  charged  by  Repre- 
sentative Albert  A.  Law,  of  Cache  County,  with  attempting 
to  bribe  him,  by  offering  fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  his  vote. 
Law  was  a  Republican,  but  had  joined  with  the  Fusionists  in 
supporting  Cannon.  McCune  denied  the  charge,  and  the  As- 
sembly ordered  an1  investigation.  After  a  diligent  inquiry, 
five  of  the  investigating  committee  reported  that  the  evidence 
did  not  sustain  the  accusation.  The  remaining  two  committee- 
men  filed  a  dissenting  opinion.  The  final  ballot — the  149th — 
was  cast  at  midnight  on  the  8th  of  March,  with  the  following 
result:  Alfred  W.  McCune,  25;  George  Q.  Cannon,  15;  Wil- 
liam H.  King,  12;  Frank  J,  Cannon,  7;  George  Sutherland,  3. 
Necessary  to  a  choice,  32.  The  Assembly  dissolved  without 
electing  a  United  States  Senator. 

Senator  Kearns  and  "The  Hierarchy." — The  Senatorial 
seat  remained  vacant  until  January,  1901,  when  the  Republi- 
cans, regaining  control  of  the  Legislature,  selected  Thomas 
Kearns  for  the  place.  Mr.  Kearns  was  a  rich  mining  man,  one 


REPRESENTATIVE    SUTHERLAND. 


528    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


of  the  principal  owners  of  the  famous  Silver  King  property  at 
Park  City.  In  1905  he  emphasized  his  retirement  from  Con- 
gress with  a  speech  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate  attacking 
"The  Mormon  Hierarchy :"  About  the  same  time  the  Salt 
Lake  Tribune  re-opened  its  batteries  against  the  Church. 
Alleged  religious  influence  in  politics,  commercialism,  and  the 
recrudescence  of  polygamy,  were  the  principal  charges  hurled 

at  the  "Mormon"  leaders. 
Later,  these  subjects  were  ex- 
ploited in  a  number  of  popular 
magazines — Pearson's,  Every- 
body's, McClure's  and  the  Cos- 
mopolitan— some  of  which  sent 
special  representatives  to  Utah. 
The  American  Party. — 
Meanwhile  the  American  Par- 
ty had  been  born.  The  first 
movement  toward  its  organiza- 
tion took  place  in  the  autumn 
of  1904.  It  was  virtually  an  at- 
tempt to  revive  the  Liberal  or 
"Anti-Mormon"  party,  which 
had  passed  out  of  existence 
during  the  previous  decade. 
The  attempt  was  successful 
only  in  part,  many  of  the  old 
Liberals  holding  aloof.  Never- 
theless the  Americans  thrice 
elected  the  government  'of 
Salt  Lake  City,  and  held  it  from 
1905  to  1911.  At  the  end  of  that  period,  a  majority  of  the  citi- 
zens, "Mormons"  and  "Gentiles,"  including  many  ex-"Amer- 
icans,"  combined  against  the  new  party  and  snowed  it  under 
at  the  polls.*  The  Utah  capital  then  adopted  the  commission 
form  of  government. 

Senator    Sutherland,    Representative    Howell,    Et    Al.— 
Senator  Kearns  was  succeeded  by  Senator  George  Sutherland, 

*"The  American  Party,"  says  a  "Gentile"  chronicler,  "was  a 
rebuke  to  actual  or  supposed  Church  activity  in  politics.  It  was  to  the 
city  of  Salt  Lake  what  the  Liberal  Party  had  been  to  the  State;  that 
is  to  say,  the  decided  Anti-Mormon  party;  the  line  of  cleavage  was  a 
religious  one.  While  the  party  was  probably  formed  in  good  faith,  its 
machinery  rapidly  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  sinister  and  unscrupulous 
element  of  Salt  Lake  City.  This  element  had  no  other  aim  but  to 
gain  protection  in  certain  notorious  occupations.  It  used  the  Mormon 
bugaboo  for  all  there  was  in  it,  and  in  this  way  made  the  good  Gentiles 
of  Salt  Lake  City  the  means  of  keeping  it  in  power.  The  American 
Party  finally  grew  so  bad  that  many  of  the  decent  Gentiles  deserted  it, 
fearing  its  motives  more  than  the  scare  of  Mormon  domination."- 
James  H.  Wolfe,  in  "The  Utah  Survey,"  March-April,  1916. 


SENATOR    KEARNS. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


529 


who  has  continued  in  office  down  to  the  present  time.  Suth- 
erland's successor  as  Representative  was  Joseph  Howell,  a 
merchant  of  Wellsville,  who  had  represented  Cache  County 
in  the  Legislature.  It  was  in  1902  that  he  was  chosen  for 
Congress.  Mr.  Howell  was  many  times  elected,  but  failed 
of  renomination  in  1916.  Meanwhile  Utah  had  become  en- 
titled to  another  Representative,  and  Jacob  Johnson,  Repub- 
lican, of  Sanpete  County,  was  chosen  from  the  First  Congress- 
ional District.  This  district  comprises  all  the  counties,  ex- 
cepting Salt  Lake,  Utah,  Davis,  and  Tooele,  which  constitute 
the  Second  Congressional  District.  Mr.  Johnson  retired  in 
1915.  In  1914  James  H.  Mays,  Democratic-Progressive,  was 
elected  Representative  for  the  Second  District. 

The  Smoot  Investigation. — The  election  of  Reed  Smoot, 
Republican,  to  succeed  Joseph  L.  Rawlins,  Democrat,  in  the 
upper  house  of  Congress,  gave 
rise  to  a  contest  unparalleled  in 
the  history  of  the  State  or  of 
the  Nation.  Mr.  Smoot,  a  resi- 
dent of  Rrovo,  was  and  is  still 
an  Apostle  of  the  "Mormon" 
Church,  and  one  of  the  ablest 
financial  men  in  Utah.  He  an- 
nounced his  candidacy  for  the 
United  States.  Senate  in  May, 
1902,  and  was  elected  in  the  fol- 
lowing January,  receiving 
forty-five  of  the  sixty-three 
votes  in  the  Joint  Assembly  of 
the  Legislature.  He  presented 
his  credentials  at  the  opening 
of  the  extra  session  of  Congress 
in  February,  and  was  sworn  in 
without  objection.  His  right 
to  the  seat  had  been  questioned, 
and  certain  protests  had  been 
filed  against  him,  but  the  Sen- 
ate, pursuing  the  usual  course, 
admitted  him  pending  further 

developments.  Ten  months  elapsed,  and  then  began  an  in- 
vestigation that  was  destined  to  give  the  Utah  Senator  a  world- 
wide renown. 

Protests  from  Utah. — There  were  two  protests  against 
the  seating  of  Senator  Smoot,  both  emanating  from  "Gentile" 
sources  in  Utah.  One  paper  was  signed  by  Reverend 
John  L.  Leilich,  Methodist  minister,  and  the  other  by  eighteen 
prominent  citizens,  including  Dr.  William  M.  Paden,  Pastor 

33 


REPRESENTATIVE  HOWELL. 


530    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  Bishop  Abiel  Leonard,  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  at  the  Utah  capital.  Judge 
Goodwin,  editor  of  the  Tribune ;  C.  E.  Allen,  former  Congress- 
man; Ezra  Thompson,  Ex-Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City;  and  E. 
B.  Critchlow,  of  the  Utah  Bar,  also  put  their  signatures  to  the 

second  protest,  the  materials 
for  which  had  been  furnished 
by  Mr.  Paden  and  the  Minister- 
ial Association.  These  docu- 
ments, with  Senator  Smoot's 
credentials  and  reply,  and  a  pe- 
tition in  his  favor  signed  by 
forty  Utah  citizens,  thirty- 
eight  of  them  "Gentiles,"  were, 
referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Privileges  and  Elections.  Sen- 
ator Julius  C.  Burrows,  of 
Michigan,  was  chairman  of  that 
Committee,  the  other  members 
of  it  being  Senators  George 
F.  Hoar  of  Massachusetts, 
Louis  E.  McComas  of  Mary- 
land, Joseph  B.  Foraker  of 
Ohio,  Chauncey  M.  Depew  of 
New  York,  Albert  J.  Bever- 
idge  of  Indiana,  William  P. 
Dillingham  of  New  Hampshire, 
Albert  J.  Hopkins  of  Illinois, 
Edmund  W.  Pettus  of  Ala- 
bama, Fred  T.  Dubois  of  Idaho,  Joseph  W.  Bailey  of  Texas, 
Lee  S.  Overman  of  North  Carolina,  and  James  P.  Clark  of 
Arkansas.  Subsequently  .Senator  P.  C.  Knox,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, took  the  place  made,  vacant  by  the  death  of  Senator 
Hoar;  while  Senator  Jonathan  P.  Dolliver,  of  Iowa,  succeeded 
Senator  McComas  at  the  expiration  of  his  term. 

At  the  Bar  of  the  Nation. — The  Smoot  case  was  taken  up 
early  in  1904.  The  inquiry,  which  was  searching  and  thorough, 
extended  through  a  period  of  three  years.  The  ostensible  pur- 
pose was  to  investigate  the  right  and  title  of  the  Senator  from 
Utah  to  the  seat  he  occupied;  but  Mr.  Smoot  and  his  individual 
cause  were  nearly  lost  sight  of  in  the  greater  sensation  of  a 
virtual  arraignment  of  the  "Mormon"  Church  before  a  leading 
committee  of  the  United  States  Senate.  The  head  of  the 
Church  was  one  of  those  summoned  to  'Washington  to  testify. 
The  prosecution  was  conducted  by  two  former  Congressmen 
—Robert  W.  Tayler,  of  Ohio,  who  had  led  the  opposition  to 
Mr.  Roberts  in  the'  House  of  Representatives;  and  John  C. 


SENATOR    SMOOT. 


WAR  AND   POLITICS. 


531 


Carlisle,  of  Kentucky,  who  had  been  Speaker  of  the  House. 
The  attorneys  for  the  defense  were  A.  S.  Wo'rthington,  of 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  Waldemar  Van  Cott,  of  Salt  Lake 
City. 

Basis  of  Proceedings. — Mr.  Leilich  had  accused  Senator 
Smoot  of  polygamy,  that  is,  with  "having  a  legal  and  a  plural 
wife."  There  was  absolutely  no  ground  for  such  a  charge,  the 
Senator  having  but  one  wife,  and  this  part  of  the  indictment 
was  ignored  at  the  outset  of 
the  Committee's  deliberations. 
The  Paden  protest  contained 
the  following  allegations : 

(1.)  Mr.  Smoot  is  one  of 
a  self-perpetuating  body  of 
men,  known  as  the  First  Presi- 
dency and  Twelve  Apostles  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints,  commonly 
known  as  the  Mormon  Church ; 

(2.)  These  men  claim  di- 
vine authority  to  control  the 
members  of  said  Church  in  all 
things,  temporal  as  well  as 
spiritual  ; 

(3.)  This  authority  is, 
and  has  been  for  several  years 
past,  so  exercised  by  the  said 
First  Presidency  and  Twelve 
Apostles  as  to  encourage  the 
practice  of  polygamy  and 
polygamous  cohabitation  in  the 
State  of  Utah  and  elsewhere, 
contrary  to  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  State  of  Utah  and  the  law  of  the  land : 

(4.)  The  said  First  Presidency  and  Twelve  Apostles  do 
now  control,  and  for  a  long  time  past  have  controlled,  the 
political  affairs  of  the  State  of  Utah,  and  have  thus  brought 
about  therein  a  union  of  Church  and  State,  contrary  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  State  of  Utah,  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

These  charges,  with  the  further  statement  that  Senator 
Smoot  had  subscribed  to  an  oath  of  such  character  that  he  was 
"thereby  disqualified  from  taking  the  oath  of  office  required  of 
a  United  States  Senator,"  formed  the  basis  of  proceedings 
in  this  celebrated  case. 

The  "Mormon"  Leader  Testifies. — It  was  during  March, 
1904,  that  President  Joseph  F.  Smith  testified  before  the  Com- 


BISHOP    LEONARD. 


532    WHITNEi  •»  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


mittee.  In  answer  to  questions  put  to  him  by  Mr.  Tayler  he 
admitted  that  he  had  lived  with  all  his  wives — five  in  number 
— and  that  they  had  borne  him  eleven  children  since  the  year 
1890.  He  had  done  this  knowing  the  responsibility,  and  that 
he  was  amenable  to  the  law. 

Chairman  Burrows. — "Mr.  Smith,  I  will  not  press  it,  but 

I  will  ask  you  if  you  have  any 
objection  to  stating  how  many 
children  you  have  in  all?" 

President  Smith. — "I  have 
had  borne  to  me,  sir,  forty-two 
children — twenty-one  boys  and 
twenty-one  girls — and  I  am 
proud  of  every  one  of  them." 

Chairman  Burrows. — "Do 
you  obey  the  law  in  having  five 
wives  at  this  time,  and  having 
them  bear  to  you  eleven  chil- 
dren since  the  Manifesto  of 
1890?" 

President  Smith.— "Mr. 
Chairman,  I  have  not  claimed 
that  in  that  case  I  have  obeyed 
the  law  of  the  land.  *  *  * 
I  do  not  claim  so,  and,  as  I  said 
before,  I  prefer  to  stand  my 
chances  against  the  law." 

The  Case  for  the  Prosecu- 
tion.— The  purpose  of  this 
questioning  was  to  show  that 

since  those  living  in  polygamous  relations  were  polygamists  in 
the  sight  of  the  law,  by  sustaining  and  upholding  as  a  member* 
of  the  Church  such  men  as  President  Smith,  Senator  Smoot 
countenanced  and  encouraged  polygamy.  It  was  charged  that 
two  of  the  Apostles,  John  W.  Taylor  and  Matthias  F.  Cowley, 
had  evaded  service  of  process  issued  for  their  appearance, 
and  had  refused  to  come  before  the  Committee  when  requested 
to  do  so.  The  claim  that  these  men  had  been  "dropped  from  the 
list  of  Apostles,"  for  being  "out  of  harmony  with  their  as- 
sociates upon  the  question  of  the  further  practice  of  polyg- 
amy," was  said  to  merit  no  consideration,  having  been  "done 
for  popular  effect." 

To  sustain  the  charge  of  political  domination  on  the  part 
of  the  Church,  it  was  asserted  that  in  the  State  of  Idaho,  where 
many  Latter-day  Saints  resided,  candidates  for  office,  in  order 
to  succeed,  must  first  visit  Salt  Lake  City  and  make  arrange- 


WALDEMAR    VAN     COTT. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS.  533 

incuts  with  the  "Mormon"  leaders,  and  that  whatever  they  de- 
sired to  have  done,  or  left  undone,  either  by  legislative  or  ad- 
ministrative power,  would  result.  The  history  of  a  measure 
introduced  in  the  Utah  Legislature  during  1901  was  cited  to 
sustain  the  theory  of  Church  influence  in  matters  of  legisla- 
tion. That  measure  was  the  Evans  Bill,  the  enactment  of 
which  was  sought  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the  operations 
of  one  Charles  Mostyn  Owen,  a  spy  and  an  informer,  em- 
ployed, as  was  believed,  by  the  Salt  Lake  Ministerial  Associa- 
tion, to  work  up  prosecutions  against  men,  many  of  them  aged 
and  infirm,  who,  trusting  to  the  tolerance  of  their  "Gentile" 
neighbors,  had  continued  to  live  with  their  plural  families  not- 
withstanding the  Manifesto  and  the  inhibitions  of  the  law. 
It  was  intimated  that  the  Church  had  dictated,  first  to  the 
Legislature,  thus  securing  the  passage  of  the  Evans  Bill,  and 
afterwards,  for  prudential  reasons,  to  the  Governor,  inducing 
him  to  veto  it.  As  an  instance  of  the  exercise  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  in  political  affairs,  the  case  of  Moses  Thatcher  was 
mentioned.  It  was  alleged  that  this  Apostle  had  been  de- 
posed, and  defeated  in  his  Senatorial  candidacy,  because  of  his 
disobedience  to  the  dictation  of  the  First  Presidency  and  the 
Twelve. 

Senator  Smoot's  opponents  maintained  that  he  was  meas- 
urably responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the  organization  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  and  therefore  accountable  in  part  for  these 
alleged  acts  of  political  domination  by  religious  authority. 
Moreover,  it  was  urged  that,  having  taken  an  oath  in  "the 
endowment  ceremonies"  of  his  Church,  to  avenge  the  blood  of 
Joseph  Smith  upon  this  Nation,  he  was  not  in  a  position  to  dis- 
charge the  obligation  resting  upon  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Burrows  Resolution. — Chairman  Burrows  and  six 
others  of  the  Committee — Senators  Dolliver,  Pettus,  Dubois, 
Bailey,  Overman,  and  Clark — in  a  report  submitted  to  the  Sen- 
ate, June  llth,  1906,  said:  "The  more  deliberately  and  care- 
fully the  testimony  taken  on  the  investigation  is  considered, 
the  more  irresistibly  it  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the  facts 
stated  in  the  protest  are  true."  Upon  this  finding  they  pre- 
sented a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  Reed  Smoot  was  not 
entitled  to  a  seat  as  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the 
State  of  Utah. 

The  Opposite  View. — Five  members  of  the  Committee — 
Senators  Foraker,  Beveridge,  Dillingham,  Hopkins,  and 
Knox — disagreed  with  their  fellows,  and  filed  dissenting  views. 
They  declared  that  Reed  Smoot  possessed  all  the  qualifications 
prescribed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  make 
him  eligible  to  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  There  had  been  no  irregu- 


534    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

larity  in  his  election,  and  his  private  life  and  character  were 
irreproachable.  He  was  not  a  polygamist,  and  was  opposed  to 
plural  marriages.  The  testimony  as  to  the  so-called  "endow- 
ment oath"  was  not;  only  limited,  vague  and  indefinite,  but 
"utterly  unreliable,  because  of  the  disreputable  and  untrust- 
worthy character  of  the  witnesses."  No  ground  had  been 
established  upon  which  to  predicate  a  finding  and  belief  that 
Mr.  Smoot  ever  took  any  obligation  involving  hostility  to  the 
Government,  or  requiring  him  to  regard  his  allegiance  to  the 
Church  as  paramount  to  his  allegiance  and  duty  to  the  United 
States. 

The  dissenting  committeemen  then  presented  their  views 
upon  the  question  as  to  whether  Reed  Smoot,  by  virtue  of 
his  official  relation  to  the  Church,  was  responsible  in  any  de- 
gree for  the  continuance  of  polygamous  cohabitation  by  cer- 
tain of  its  members  since  the  Manifesto  of  1890.  There  was 
no  testimony  to  show  that  he  had  ever  done  more  than  silently 
acquiesce  in  this  offense  against  the  law.  The  peculiar  circum- 
stances attending  the  commission  of  that  offense  were  then 
considered.  So  far  as  the  evidence  disclosed,  there  had  been 
but  a  few  plural  marriages  since  the  issuance  of  the  Manifesto 
—perhaps  not  more  than  the  bigamous  marriages  during  the 
same  period  among  as  many  non-"Mormons."  The  number 
of  polygamous  families  in  Utah  had  decreased  from  twenty- 
four  hundred  in  1890,  to  about  five  hundred  in  1905,  owing  to 
death  and  other  causes,  and  it  would  be  only  a  few  years  until 
all  would  have  passed  away.  "This  feature  of  the  situation," 
said  the  Foraker  document,  "has  had  a  controlling  influence 
upon  public  sentiment  in  the  State  of  Utah."  "Congress,  having 
by  the  statutes  of  1882  and  1887  specifically  legitimized  the 
children  of  these  polygamous  marriages,  it  was  inconsistent, 
if  not  unwise  and  impossible,  in  the  opinion  of  even  the  non- 
Mormons,  to  prohibit  the  father  of  such  children  from  living 
with,  supporting,  educating,  and  caring  for  them;  but  if  the 
father  was  thus  to  live  with,  support,  educate,  and  care  for 
the  children,  it  seemed  harsh  and  unreasonable  to  exclude 
from  this  relationship  the  mothers  of  the  children."  When 
Congress  passed  the  Enabling  Act  (July,  1894)  the  people  of 
Utah  were  required  to  incorporate  in  their  State  Constitution 
a  proviso  prohibiting  polygamous  marriages,  but  not  polyga- 
mous cohabitation.  "There  was  a  common  understanding- 
both  in  Congress  and  in  Utah  that  there  were  not  only  to  be 
no  more  plural  marriages,  but  that  prosecutions  for  polyga- 
mous cohabitation  had  become  so  difficult  that  there  was  a 
practical  suspension  of  them,  and  that  time  was  the  only  cer- 
tain solution  of  the  perplexing  problem." 

In  support  of  this  view  the  statements  of  prominent  "Gen- 


WAR  AND  POLITICS.  535 

tiles"  were  cited,  namely,  Judge  William  McCarty,  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Utah ;  Mr.  E.  B.  Critchlow,  former  United 
States  Commissioner;  and  Judge  O.  W.  Powers,  all  of  whom 
had  testified  during  the  investigation.  Their  testimony 
proved  that  the  "Gentiles"  had  acquiesced  in  the  non-prosecu- 
tion of  such  cases,  favoring  a  tolerant  policy  in  relation  to 
them.  A  speech  by  Senator  Dubois,  of  Idaho,  reported  in  the 
Congressional  Record  of  February  5,  1903,  was  likewise  drawn 
upon  for  evidence  of  "Gentile"  toleration  in  this  class  of 
cases. 

Such  testimony  caused  the  five  committeemen  to  believe 
that  the  conditions  existing  in  Utah  since  Reed  Smoot  became 
an  Apostle  had  been  such  that  non-"Mormons"  and  "Mor- 
mons" alike  acquiesced  in  polygamous  cohabitation  on  the 


STATE    INDUSTRIAL   SCHOOL,    OGDEN. 


part  of  those  who  married  before  the  Manifesto  of  1890,  as  an 
evil  that  could  best  be  gotten  rid  of  by  simply  tolerating  it 
until  in  the  natural  course  of  events  it  had  passed  out  of  exist- 
ence. In  conclusion  they  said:  "The  undersigned  are  of  the 
opinion  that  there  is  no  just  ground  for  expelling  Senator 
Smoot  or  for  finding  him  disqualified  to  hold  the  seat  he  oc- 
cupies." 

Senator  Smoot  Retains  his  Seat. — The  end  of  the  pro- 
tracted controversy  came  on  the  20th  of  February,  1907,  when 
the  Senate,  by  a  vote  of  forty-one  to  twenty-eight,  rejected  the 
Burrows  resolution,  and  adopted  the  views  of  Senator' Foraker 
and  his  associates,  deciding  that  Senator  Smoot  was  entitled 


536    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

to  his  seat.  Senator;  Depew  was  the  only  member  of  the 
Committee  who  withheld  his  signature  from  both  reports. 
Senator  Dolliver,  who  had  been  placed  upon  the  Committee 
after  the  close  of  the  hearing,  signed  the  Burrows  report,  but 
with  the  understanding  that  during  the  recess  of  Congress  he 
would  read  the  testimony,  and  if  convinced  that  the  minority 
were  right,,  would  transfer  his  signature  to  their  document. 
This  he  did,  dividing  equally  the  twelve  committeemen  re- 
porting upon  the  case.  The  vote  was  preceded  by  a  lively 
debate,  in  which  both  Utah  Senators  took  part.  Mr.  Smoot 
was  not  injured  by  the  fierce  light  thrown  upon  him  during 
the  inquisition,  out  of  which  he  came  with  reputation  en- 
hanced and  influence  increased  tenfold.  The  cost  of  the  de- 
fense— $35,000 — was  borne  by  the  Senator's  private  [purse, 
barring  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  subsequently  ap- 
propriated by  Congress  for  his  relief. 

The  Church's  Attitude.— In  April,  1904,  President  Joseph 
F.   Smith   had  issued   an   official   statement,  emphasizing  the 


PACKARD  FREE  LIBRARY,  SALT  LAKE  CITY. 

Manifesto  of  1890,  and  declaring  that  since  that  time  no  plural 
marriages  had  been  solemnized  with  the  sanction,  consent,  or 
knowledge  of  the  Church.  All  such  marriages  were  prohibited, 
and  if  any  officer  or  member  should  assume  to  solemnize  or 
enter- into  such  a  marriage,  he  would  be  deemed  a  transgressor, 
liable  to  be  dealt  with  and  excommunicated  from  the  Church. 
This  declaration  was  ratified  by  the  General  Conference. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


537 


A  few  weeks  after  the  close  of  the  Smoot  investigation, 
President  Smith  and  his  Counselors  issued  an  "Address  to 
the  World,"  re-affirming  the  loyalty  of  the  Church  to  the  Na- 
tion, and  answering  charges  made  against  the  "Mormon"  peo- 
ple, and  their  leaders.  This  address  was  read  to  the  General 


THE  AUGUSTA   NATURAL  BRIDGE. 

Conference  in  April,  1907,  and  adopted  by  unanimous  vote. 
The  parts  most  pertinent  are  here  presented : 

"The  Mormon  people  have  bowed  in  respectful  submission 
to  the  law  enacted  against  plural  marriage.  While  it  is  true 
that  for  many,  years  they  contested  the  constitutionality  of 
the  law  of  Congress,  and  during  that  time  acted  in  harmony 
with  their  religious  convictions  in  upholding  by  practice  as 
well  as  by  spoken  and  written  word  a  principle  committed  to 
them  from  God,  still,  when  every  means  of  constitutional  de- 
fense had  been  exhausted,  the  Church  abandoned  the  contro- 
versy and  announced  its  intention  to  be  obedient  to  the  laws 
of  the  land.  Subsequently,  when  Statehood  for  Utah  became  a 
possibility,  on  the  condition  that  her  Constitution  provide 
by  ordinance,  irrevocable  without  the  consent  of  the  United 
States,  that  plural  marriages  should  be  forever  prohibited, 
the  "Mormon"  people  accepted  the  condition  by  voting  for 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  From  that  time  until  now,  the 
Church  has  been  true  to  its  pledge  respecting  the  abandonment 
of  plural  marriage. 

"If  it  be  urged  that  there  have  been  instances  of  the  vio- 
lation f  f  tVe  anti-polygamy  laws,  and  that  some  persons  within 


538    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

the  Church  have  sought  to  evade  the  rule  adopted  by  her 
prohibiting  plural  marriages,  the  plain  answer  is  that  in  every 
state  and  nation  there  are  individuals  who  violate  law  in  spite 
of  all  the  vigilance  that  can  be  exercised ;  but  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  integrity  of  a  community  or  a  state  is  destroyed,  be- 
cause of  such  individual  transgressions.  All  we  ask  is  that  ths 
same  common-sense  judgment  be  exercised  in  relation  to  our 
community  that  is  accorded  to  other  communities." 

"Those  who  refer  to  'Mormon  polygamy'  as  a  menace  to 
the  American  home,  or  as  a  serious  factor  in  American  prob- 
lems, make  themselves  ridiculous.  So  far  as  plural  marriage  is 
concerned,  the  question  is  settled.  The  problem  of  polyg- 
amous living  among  our  people  is  rapidly  solving  itself.  It 
is  a  matter  of  record  that  in  1890,  when  the  Manifesto  was 
issued,  there  were  2,451  plural  families;  in  nine  years,  this 
number  had  been  reduced  to  1,543.  Four  years  later  the  num- 
ber was  897;  and  many  of  these  have  since  passed  away." 
###*  *  ##*# 

>  > 

"We  declare  that  from  principle  and  policy  we  favor 
the  absolute  separation  of  Church  and  State ;  no  domination 
of  the  State  by  the  Church ;  no  Church  interference  with  the 
functions  of  the  State ;  no  State  interference  with  the  functions 
of  the  Church,  or  with  the  free  exercise  of  religion;  the  abso- 
lute freedom  of  the  individual  from  the  domination  of  ecclesi- 
astical authority  in  political  affairs ;  the  equality  of  all 
churches  before  the  law. 

"The  reaffirmation  of  this  doctrine  and  policy,  however,  is 
predicated  upon  the  express  understanding  that  politics  in  the 
States  where  our  people  reside  shall  be  conducted  as  in 
other  parts  of  the  Union ;  that  there  shall  be  no  interference 
by  the  State  with  the  Church,  nor  with  the  free  exercise  of  re- 
ligion. Should  political  parties  make  war  upon  the  Church,  or 
menace  the  civil,  political,  or  religious  rights  of  its  members 
as  such, — against  a  policy  of  that  kind,  by  any  political  party 
or  set  of  men  whatsoever,  we  assert  the  inherent  right  of  self- 
preservation  for  the  Church,  and  her  right  and  duty  to  call 
upon  all  her  children,  and  upon  all  who  love  justice,  and  desire 
the  perpetuation  of  religious  liberty,  to  come  to  her  aid,  to 
stand  with  her  until  the  danger  shall  have  passed.  And  this 
openly,  submitting  the  justice  of  our  cause  to  the  enlightened 
judgment  of  our  fellow  men,  should  such  an  issue  unhappily 
arise.  We  desire  to  live  in  peace  and  confidence  with  our 
fellow  citizens  of  all  political  parties  and  of  all  religions." 

The  Counselors  to  President  Smith  when  this  address  was 
issued  were  John  R.  Winder  and  Anthon  H.  Lund.  President 
Winder  died  in  March,  1910,  and  in  April  was  succeeded  as 
First  Counselor  by  President  Lund,  whose  place  as  Second 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


539 


Counselor  was  given  to  Elder  John  Henry  Smith.  Death 
claimed  the  latter  in  October,  1911,  and  since  December  of 
that  year  Charles  W.  Penrose  has  been  Second  Counselor  in 
the  First  Presidency. 

Governor  Wells  and  His  Work. — Governor  Wells  closed 
his  first  term  in  January,  1901,  and  was  given  a  second  term, 
ending  in  January,  1905.  He  was  in  office  nine  years,  longer 
than  any  Governor  of  Utah  before  him,  and  was  rightly  re- 
garded as  an  intelligent,  broad-minded,  honest  and  capable 
executive. 

The  Roosevelt  Visit. — During  the  latter  part  of  Governor 
Wells'  second  term  the  State  was  honored  with  a  visit  from 
President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  first  head  of  the  Nation  to 
visit  Utah  after  her  admission  into  the  Union.  He  arrived 
and  departed  on  the  29th  of  May,  1903.  Once  before  he  had 
been  in  Utah,  when,  as  Republican  candidate  for  Vice  Presi- 
dent, he  made  speeches  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  not 
omitting  the  West,  which  had  formerly  been  his  home.  During 
his  brief  stay  in  the  autumn  of  1900,  he  addressed  an  audience 
at  the  Salt  ^Lake  Theatre,  and 
enjoyed  a  gallop  with  the 
Rough  Riders,  who  came  from 
various  counties  to  greet  him. 
His  second  visit  was  several 
months  after  the  tragic  death  of 
President  McKinley  had  made 
him  that  great  man's  succes- 
sor.* 

Utah  gave  Roosevelt  an 
ovation,  one  of  the  greatest 
civic  and  military  parades  ever 
seen  in  this  region  taking  place 
in  his  honor.  Two  mammoth 
meetings  were  held,  one  in  .the 
open  air  at  the  Salt  Lake  City 
and  County  Building,  and  the 
other  in  the  Tabernacle.  At 
both  places  the  President  ad- 
dressed enthusiastic  throngs. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Secre- 
tary Moody,  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  and  Secretary 


PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT. 


*Memorial  servkes  in  honor  of -President  McKinley  were  held  in 
all  the  Utah  churches,  September  19  ,1901,  the  day  of  his  funeral  at 
Canton,  Ohio.  An  immense  congregation  assembled  at  the  Tabernacle 
in  Salt  Lake  City,  where  fitting  tributes  were  paid  to  the  third  mar- 
tyred Chief  of  the  Nation. 


540    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Wilson,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  They  also  spoke 
to  the  people.  At  the  outdoor  meeting  twelve  thousand  school 
children,  all  waving  American  flags,  cheered  for  the  Chief 
Magistrate;  while  at  the  indoor  gathering  Governor  Wells  de- 
livered an  address  of  welcome,  and  Miss  Emma  Ramsey  (now 
Mrs.  George  Q.  Morris)  sang  "The  Flag  without  a  Stain." 
Senator  Kearns  introduced  President  Roosevelt,  a  part  of 
whose  speech  was  a  tribute  to  Utah  and  the  Pioneers.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  after  eulogizing  the  "splendid  volun- 
teers" that  Utah  had- sent  to  the  Philippines,  said:  "We  want 
more  of  your  young-  men  to  tread  the  decks  of  our  war  ves- 
sels." He  promised  that  one  of  the  great  battleships  soon  to 
be  built  should  bear  the  name  "Utah;"*  an  announcement 
greeted  with  loud  applause.  The  visitors,  who  had  breakfasted 
at  the  palatial  home  of  Senator  Kearns,  held  a  reception  at  the 
Alta  Club,  and  then  departed  for  the  East. 

Governor  Cutler. — The  second  Governor  of  the  State  was 

John  C.  Cutler,  an  Englishman 
by  birth,  but  for  many  years  an 
American  citizen  and  a  resident 
of  Utah.  At  the  time  of  his 
nomination  by  the  Republicans, 
in  the  autumn  of  1904,  he  was 
a  prominent  and  successful 
business  man  at  Salt  Lake  City. 
During  his  four  years  of  ser- 
vice Governor  Cutler  gave  care- 
ful attention  to  the  finances  of 
the  State,  and  left  them  in  an 
excellent  condition.  The  reve- 
nue was  increased,  expenses  cut 
down,  and  all  public  institu- 
tions benefited,  especially  the 
Industrial  School  and  the  Men- 
tal Hospital.  The  State  laws 
were  compiled,  and  so  amended 
that  funds  in  possession  of  the 
State  Board  of  Land  Commis- 

GOVERNOR  CUTLER.  sioners  might  be  used  for  irri- 

gation enterprises  and  the  reclamation  of  arid  lands. 

University  and  Agricultural  College. — Soon  after  Gov- 
ernor Cutler's  induction  into  office  he  was  confronted  by  an 
educational  problem,  -involving  the  University  of  Utah  and  the 
State  Agricultural  College,  the  former  at  Salt  Lake  City,  the 
latter  at  Logan.  Both  schools  had  done  excellent  work,  and 
were  noted  for  efficiency  and  progressiveness,  but  there  was 
an  unnecessary  and  expensive  duplication  of  studies  in  the 
institutions.  The  Governor,  in. pursuance  of  his  retrenchment 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


541 


policy,  called  the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to  this  fact,  and 
the  result  was  the  enactment  in  1907  of  laws  restricting  and 
prescribing  the  work  of  the  two  schools  and  designating  the 
field  that  each  must  occupy. 


UTAH  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE. 

From  the  autumn  of  1900  the  University  had  occupied  a 
site  provided  for  it  by  Act  of  Congress — namely,  a  portion  of 
the  Fort  Douglas  Military  Reservation.  This  gift  was  be- 
stowed during  the  winter  of  1893-1894,  with  the  proviso  that 
the  chief  building  should  be  erected  there  within  five  years 
after  the  passage  of  the  Act.  In  February,  1899,  the  Legislature 
provided  for  the  removal  of  the  University  from  Union  Square 
to  the  new  and  commanding  site  on  the  foothills  east  of  the 
Utah  capital.* 


NEW   ADMINISTRATION   BUILDING,   UNIVERSITY   OF  UTAH. 


*The  first  grant  of  land  made  by  Congress  to  the  University  was 
in  February,  1855.  It  consisted  of  two  townships,  equal  to  46,080 
acres,  to  be  selected  anywhere  within  the  Territory  Ihe  second  grant 
—110,000  acres,  to  be  selected  anywhere  within  the  State — was  included 
in  the  Enabling  Act,  July,  1894.  A  third  similar  grant  was  made 
through  a  bill  introduced  into  Congress  by  Senator  George  Sutherland. 


542    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


In  October,  1905,  Governor  Cutler  took  part  in  the  cere- 
monies attending  the  opening  of  the  Free  Public  Library  at 
Salt  Lake  City.  This  handsome  Grecian  structure,  near  neigh- 
bor to  the  Alta  Club,  and  not  far  from  the  historic  Eagle  Gate, 
was  a  gift  from  Mr.  John  Q.  Packard,  a  mining  millionaire. 
Some  of  the  books  upon  the  shelves  of  the  Free  Library  were 
once  in  the  Masonic  Library,  which  followed  the  Territorial 
Library,  founded  in  1850-1852.  The  remnants  of  the  latter 
collection  long  ago  became  part  of  the  library  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Utah.  Ogden,  Provo  and  many  other  Utah  towns 
now  have  free  public  libraries,  most  of  them  creations  of  the 
Carnegie  Fund. 

During  Governor  Cutler's  administration  Juvenile  Courts 
were  established,  pursuant  to  a  law  enacted  in  1905,  making 
provision  for  such  tribunals  in  certain  cities  of  the  State.  In 
1907  the  Legislature  provided  for  a  Juvenile  Court  in  each  of 
the  seven  judicial  districts.  The  judges  and  probation  officers 
are  appointed  by  a  State  Juvenile  Court  Commission,  consist- 
ing of  the  Governor,  Attorney  General,  and  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction.  In  May,  1908,  the  Utah  Peace  Society 
was  organized,  in  harmony  with  the  world  movement  for  uni- 
versal peace. 

Governor  Spry. — William 
Spry,  the  third  Governor  of  the 
State,  came  to  Utah  from  Eng- 
land in  1875,  when  he  was  but 
eleven  years  of  age.  His  ex- 
periences from  childhood  were 
of  a  varied  character,  ranging 
from  stable  boy  and  railroad 
section  hand  to  hide  and  wool 
merchant,  farmer  and  stock 
raiser.  Like  his  two  predeces- 
sors, he  is  a  member  of  the 
"Mormon"  Church,  and  at  one 
time  presided  over  the  South- 
ern States  Mission.  He  rep- 
resented Tooele  County  in  the 
State  Legislature,  and  subse- 
quently was  State  Chairman 
of  the  Republican  party.  In 
1906  he  became  United  States 
Marshal,  under  an  appointment 
from  President  Roosevelt. 
GOVERNOR  SPRY.  Elected  Governor  in  the  au- 

tumn of  1908,  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  office  in  the 
following  January.     He  was  re-elected  in  1912. 


WAR  AND  POLITICS. 


543 


President  Taft  in  Utah. — During  the  fore  part  of  Governor 
Spry's  first  term,  President  William  Howard  Taft  visited  Utah. 
He  came  here  from  Colorado,  reaching  Provo  on  the  afternoon 
of  Friday,  September  4,  1909, 
accompanied  by  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  Ballinger,  Colonel 
Archibald  W.  Butt,  two  Sec- 
ret Service  guards,  and  other 
Government  officers.  Alight- 
ing from  their  train  at  "The 
Garden  City,"  the  party,  chap- 
eroned by  Senators  Smoot  and 
Sutherland,  Congressman 
Howell,  Governor  Spry,  Mayor 
Bransford  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  the  local  municipal  officers, 
proceeded  in  automobiles  to  the 
Provo  Tabernacle,\  cheered  on 
their  way  by  the  populace,  in- 
cluding students  and  faculties 
of  the  Brigham  Young  Univer- 
sity, the  Proctor  Academy,  and 
the  public  schools.  The  B.  Y. 
U.  students  signalized  their  ap- 
preciation of  the  presidential 
visit  by  painting  in  mammoth 
white  letters  "T  A  F  T",  near  their  colossal  "Y"  on  the  moun- 
tain side.  At  the  Tabernacle  the  President  addressed  three 
thousand  people,  and  took  occasion  to  congratulate  Utah  upon 
the  excellent  record  made  by  Senators  Smoot  and  Sutherland,* 
He  then  left  for  Salt  Lake  City. 

Saturday's  program  included  breakfast  and  a  speech  by 
President  Taft  at  the  Commercial  Club;  also  a  trip  to  Saltair, 
where  a  reception  was  held  on  the  ball  room  floor  of  the  pa- 
vilion. Then  came  an  organ  recital  at  the  Salt  Lake  Taber- 
nacle, a  drive  to  the  Country  Club,  a  speech  at  Liberty  Park, 
a  reception  at  the  University  Club,  ancl  an  informal  dinner  at 
the  Alta  Club.  At  Saltair  Senator  Smoot,  leading  forward  a 
venerable  lady,  introduced  her  to  President  Taft  as  "Aunt 
Emmeline"  (Mrs.  Emmeline  B.  Wells).  The  President  ex- 
pressed his  gratification  at  the  meeting,  and  Mrs.  Wells  re- 
sponded :  "I  have  been  introduced  to  every  President  since 
and  including  President  Grant,  and  have  presented  petitions 


.PRESIDENT    TAFT. 


*Senator  Sutherland,  on  September  1st,  1916,  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Bar  Association;  the  first  Western  man  to  re- 
ceive that  high  distinction. 


544    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

from  women  to  most  of  them."  At  the  Tabernacle  President 
Taft  and  President  Smith  became  mutually  acquainted,  and 
at  Liberty  Park  Senator  Sutherland,  in  behalf  of  the  Com- 
mercial Club,  presented  the  Chief  Magistrate  with  a  fine  oil 
painting  of  the  Augusta  Bridge,  in  San  Juan  County,  the  work 
of  Mr.  H.  L.  A.  Culmer. 


CENTER  STREET,  PROVO. 


"A  Bit  Like  a  Sermon." — Sunday  morning  President 
Taft  addressed  an  immense  congregation  at  the  Tabernacle. 
Taking  for  his  text  the  proverb  :  "A  soft  answer  turneth  away 
wrath,  but  grievous  words  stir  up  anger,"  he  delivered  what 
he  said  might  sound  "a  bit  like  a  sermon."  It  was  highly 
entertaining,  and  filled  with  good  advice  to  all  classes.  The 
following  paragraph  will  suffice  to  show  the  spirit  of  the  ut- 
terance, which  was  in  the  President's  happiest  vein: 

"The  truth  is,  my  dear  friends,  this  matter  of  hatred  and 
resentment,  which  accompanies  the  attributing  of  bad  motives 
to  those  who  differ  with  you,  is  a  sort  of  waste  of  nervous 
strength,  of  time,  of  worry,  without  accomplishing  one  single 
good  thing.  (Applause.)  I  don't  know  how  it  has  been  with 
you,  but  it  has  happened,  time  and  time  again  with  me,  that 
some  man  has  done  something  that  I  didn't  like,  which  I 
thought  had  a  personal  bearing,  and  that  I  have  said  in  my 
heart,  Times  will  change  and  I  will  get  even  with  that  gentle- 


WAR  AND  POLITICS.  545 

man.  (Laughter.)  Oh,  I  don't  profess  to  be  free  from  those 
feeling's  at  all.  But  it  has  frequently  happened,  I  may  say 
generally,  that  the  time  did  come  when  I  could  get  even  with 
that  man,  and  when  that  time  came  it  seemed  to  me  that  1 
would  demean  myself,  and  that  it  would  show  me  no  man  at 
all,  if  I  took  advantage.  (Applause  and  cheers.) 
So,  my  friends,  what  I  am  urging  is  less  acrimony  in  public 
discussion,  more  charity  in  respect  to  each  other  as  to  what 
moves  each  man  to  do  what  he  does  do,  and  not  to  charge 
dishonesty  and  corruption  until  you  have  a  real  reason  for 
doing  so.  (Applause.)  I  am  the  last  man  to  pardon  or  miti- 
gate wrongs  against  the  public,  or  against  the  individual.  (Ap- 
plause.) I  believe,  and  I  regret  to  say,  that  throughout  this 
ccuntry  the  administration  of  the  criminal  law  and  the  prose- 
cution of  crime  is  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization  (extended  ap- 
plause) ;  but  it  is  one  thing  to  prosecute  a  criminal  when  you 
have  the  evidence,  and  it  is  another  thing  to  ascribe  motives 
to  the  act  of  a  man  when  you  have  not  any  evidence,  and  are 
just  living  in  your  imagination  in  respect  to  what  you  say." 
(Applause.) 

The  Living  Flag. — After  the  dismissal  President  Taft  and 
his  escort  re-entered  their  cars  and  sped  to  the  junction  of 
South  Temple  and  A.  Streets,  there  to  review  "The  Living 
Flag,"  a  unique  and  inspiring  spectacle  consisting  of  hundreds 
of  school  children,  dressed  in  the  national  colors  and  arranged 
in  such  a  way  as  to  present  a  perfect  representation  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes.  While  the  President  and  those  about  him 
stood  with  uncovered  heads  in  front  of  the  beautiful  emblem, 
which  occupied  a  mammoth  stand  on  the  incline  of  A  Street, 
the  children,  led  by  Professor  Wetzell,  sang  "The  Star  Span- 
gled Banner"  and  other  patriotic  songs.  After  a  short  address 
to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the  President  at- 
tended services  at  the  Unitarian  Church.  At  noon  his  train 
pulled  out  for  the  Northwest.  As  previously  at  Helper, 
Springville,  American  Fork,  Lehi,  and  Midvale,  brief  halts 
were  made  at  Ogden,  Brigham,  and  Cache  Junction.  At  each 
of  these  places  old  and  young  came  out  to  greet  the  distin- 
guished guest  and  receive  his  words  of  wise  counsel. 

The  Battleship  "Utah." — In  December  of  that  year  Gov- 
ernor Spry  represented  the  State  at  the  launching  and  christen- 
ing of  the  United  States  battleship  "Utah ;"  the  event  taking 
place  at  the  navy  yards  of  the  New  York  Ship-building  Com- 
pany, Camden,  New  Jersey.  Thus  was  fulfilled  the  promise  of 
Secretary  Moody,  given  in  May,  1M33.  The  Governor's  daugh- 
ter, Miss  Mary  Alice  Spry,  acted  as  sponsor  for  the  great  war 
vessel  in  the  ceremony  committing  her  to  the  waves. 

34 


546    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


THE      UTAH 


U.   S.    N. 


The  Spry  Policy. — Governor  Spry  has  taken  a  deep  inter- 
est in  educational  matters,  and  heartily  favors  the  extension  of 
State  aid  to  high  schools.  As  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Cor- 
rections, he  has  exerted  his- efforts  toward  placing-  the  State 
Prison  on  a  self-supporting  basis,  by  utilizing  convict  labor  in 
agricultural  and  manufacturing  activities.  The  Governor  has 
great  faith  in  Utah's  future.  Impressed  by  the  fact  that  many 
of  her  young  men  and  women  were  moving  into  surrounding 
States,  he  has  urged  the  stay-at-home  doctrine  in  his  public 
utterances.  From  the  day  of  his  inauguration  he  has  publicly 
urged  the  burial  of  differences  and  animosities  that  have  re- 
tarded the  growth  of  the  State  and  held  back  the  .development 
of  its  resources. 

A  Pending  Election. — As  this  volume  goes  to  press  (Octo- 
ber, 1916),  Governor  Spry's  administration  is  drawing  to 
a  close.  Utah  is  on  the  eve  of  an  election,  the  issue  of  which 
will  determine  who  is  to  be  inaugurated  in  January,  1917,  as 
the  fourth  Governor  of  the  State. 


XXXVI. 


RESOURCES    AND    DEVELOPMENT. 

1916. 

An  Evenly  Developed  State. — Utah  is  a  land  of  wonderful 
resources,  and  her  resources  have  been  evenly  developed.  Gov- 
ernor Wells,  in  his  inaugural  address,  made  mention  of  this 
fact,  and  further  eulogized  the  material  features  of  his  native 
State.  Said  he :  "She  has  the  greatest  diversity  of  industry, 
and  offers  the  greatest  variety 
of  occupation,  of  any  state  in 
the  Union.  The  fame  of  Utah 
has  gone  forth  to  the  world, 
not  alone  as  a  mining  state, 
nor  as  an  agricultural  state, 
nor  as  a  grazing  state,  nor  as  a 
manufacturing  state,  but  she  is 
famous  in  each  and  all  of  these 
various  pursuits,  and  is  known 
not  more  widely  for  her  gold 
and  silver,  than  for  her  pota- 
toes and  woolen  goods." 

Independent  and  Self-sup- 
porting.— Another  authority- 
Judge  Edward  F.  Colburn — 
publishes  the  following  opin- 
ion :  "Probably  no  other  state 
in  the  Union  has  within  its 
borders  such  a  variety  of  re- 
sources. No  other  State  could 
be  so  nearly  independent  and 
self-supporting.  If  intercourse 
with  the  outside  world  were 
cut  off,  there  are  few  of  the 

necessities  or  luxuries  that  could  not  be  produced  in  abundance 
within  the  boundaries  of  Utah.    It  is  an  empire  within  itself." 

Agriculture. — Adam's  occupation — the  tilling  of  the  soil — 
will  always  be  the  most  important  industry  in  the  State  of 
Utah.  Mining  may  produce  more  wealth,  but  wealth  alone — 
material  wealth — does  not  determine  the  question  of  import- 
ance. The  beginnings  of  agriculture  in  this  region  were  at  the 
Pioneer  camps  on  City  Creek.  There  was  no  monopoly  of  land 


JUDGE   E.    F.    COLBURN. 


548    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

or  water  in  that  early  colony,  nor  in  any  of  the  colonies  that 
sprang  from  it.  Small  holdings  were  the  rule.  It  was  a  maxim 
in  the  community  that  a  man  should  own  no  more  ground  than 
he  could  cultivate.  Each  settler  was  given  a  town  lot  and  a 
small  field  on  the  outskirts.  He  was  expected  to  take  good 
care  of  them,  and  be  industrious  and  provident.  The  real 
estate  was  distributed  by  lot,  each  holder  paying  a  nominal 
fee  to  meet  the  expenses  of  surveying  and  recording.  In  re- 
turn a  temporary  right  of  occupancy  was  given,  contingent  up- 
on the  grant  of  the  General  Government,  when  the  Federal 
land  laws  should  be  extended  over  the  newly-acquired  region. 
A  town  lot  contained  an  acre  and  a  quarter,  and  a  field,  five,  ten 
or  twenty  acres.  According  to  the  State  Commissioner  of  Sta- 
tistics, the  average  farm  in  Utah  at  the  present  time  is  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres.* 

Irrigation. — The  soil  in  Salt  Lake  Valley  and  the  sur- 
rounding region  was  found  to  be  so  dry  and  hard  as  to  require 
flooding  before  it  could  be  succesfully  plowed,  and  the  rainfall 
was  so  light  and  the  dry  seasons  so  prolonged  that  the  settlers, 
in  order  to  raise  crops,  were  compelled  to  resort  to  irrigation 
as  a  regular  practice.  This  involved  much  labor,  but  abundant 
returns  repaid  the  toiler.  Far  greater  crops  are  produced  by 
irrigation  than  would  be  possible  without  it,  even  where  rain 
is  plentiful.  At  first  the  mountain  streams,  turned  out  of  their 
original  channels  into  ditches  dug  for  the  purpose,  were  used 
for  moistening  and  making  productive  the  barren  ground. 
Afterwards  canals  were  constructed  and  the  rivers  utilized  in 
like  manner  upon  a  larger  scale.  The  artesian  well,  unknown 
to  the  Pioneers,  is  a  recognized  institution  with  their  descend- 
ants. Reservoirs  to  impound  water  have  been  built  to  the 
number  of  five  hundred,  besides  six  thousand  miles  of  main 
canals  and  two  thousand  miles  of  laterals. 

Dry  Farming. — At  one  time  irrigation  was  thought  to  be 
indispensable  in  Utah — that  nothing  could  be  raised  without 
it ;  but  in  recent  years  it  has  been  found  possible  in  some  places 
to  mature  good  crops  without  irrigation.  This  discovery  was 
made  about  1860,  but  the  fact  was  not  generally  accepted  until 
many  years  later,  when  dry  farming  was  successfully  prac- 
ticed in  central  and  southern  Utah.  With  a  view  of  awaken- 
ing the  public  mind  to  the  possibilities  in  arid  farming,  the 

*The  greatest  number  of  farms  are  in  Cache,  Utah,  Salt  Lake, 
Sanpete,  Weber,  Davis,  Box  Elder  and  Tooele  counties.  Next  come 
Garfield',  Emery,  Wasatch,  Washington,  Millard,  Beaver,  Morgan, 
Juab,  Iron,  Sevier,  Kane  and  Rich  counties.  The  stock-growing  dis- 
tricts are  in  the  counties  of  Beaver,  Box  Elder,  Emery,  Garfield, 
Grand,  Iron,  Juab,  Millard,  Morgan,  Rich,  Sa  i  Juan,  Sanpete,  Tooele, 
Utah,  Washington  and  Wayne. 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT.  549 

Legislature  of  1903  located  six  experimental  dry  farms,  one  in 
each  of  the  following  named  counties :  Iron,  Juab,  San  Juan, 
Sevier,  Tooele  and  Washington.  The  sum  of  $12,500  was  ap- 
propriated to  meet  the  cost  of  the  experiment  during  two 
.years.  The  Legislature  of  1905  appropriated  $15,500  for  the 
purpose  of  continuing  the  investigations.  These  farms  are 
conducted  under  the  direction  of  the  Experiment  Station  con- 
nected with  the  Agricultural  College.* 

The  National  Irrigation  Law. — An  Act  of  Congress  ap- 
proved June  29,  1902,  provided  that  the  proceeds  from  the  sale 
of  public  lands  in  certain  States  and  Territories  might  be  used 
for  the  construction  of  irrigation  works  for  the  reclamation 
of  arid  lands ;  the  purpose  being  to  impound  the  waste  waters 
for  the  benefit  of  the  farming  population.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  was  authorized  to  make  examinations  and  sur- 
veys, and  to  locate  and  construct  works  for  the  storage,  diver- 
sion and  development  of  waters.  Throughout  Utah  there 
are  many  natural  depressions,  easily  convertible  into  reservoirs 
wherein  to  preserve  the  surplus  flow  of  the  streams ;  the  wet 
seasons  thus  being  made  to  minister  to  the  dry. 

Utah  as  Gamaliel. — It  was  soon  after  the  enactment  of 
the  National  Irrigation  Law  that  President  Roosevelt  visited 
Utah.  His  speech  at  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle  contained  a 
passage  well  worthy  of  preservation  in  this  History :  "Not 
in  recent  years,"  said  he,  "has  any  more  important  law  been 
put  upon  the  statute  books  of  the  Federal  Government  than 
the  law,  a  year  ago,  providing  for  the  first  time  that  the  Na- 
tional Government  should  interest  itself  in  aiding  and  building 
up  a  system  of  irrigated  agriculture  in  the  Rocky  Mountain 
and  Plain  States.  And  here  the  Government,  to  a  degree,  had 
to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  in  the  person  of  Utah ;  for  what 
you  have  done  and  learned  was  of  incalculable  benefit  to  those 
who  engaged  in  framing  and  getting  through  the  National  Ir- 
rigation Law.  For  irrigation  was  first  practiced  on  a  large 
scale  in  this  State.  The  necessity  of  the  Pioneers  here  led  to 
the  development  of  irrigation  to  a  degree  absolutely  unknown 
before  upon  this  continent,  and  in  no  respect  was  the  wisdom 
of  the  early  Pioneers  made  more  evident  than  in  the  sedulous 
care  they  took  to  provide  for  small  farms  carefully  tilled  by 


*The  success  so  far  achieved  by  these  experiments  is  largely  due 
to  Doctor  John  A.  Widtsoe,  former  director  of  the  Experiment  Sta- 
tion, later  President  of  the  Agricultural  College,  and  now  President  of 
the  University  of  Utah.  Professor  L.  A.  Merrill,  P.  A.  Yoder,  and 
W.  M.  Jardine  also  deserve  honorable  mention  in  this  connection.  Dr. 
Widtsoe  has  written  several  books,  dealing  in  a  thorough  and  scien- 
tific manner  with  these  interesting  theme's. 


550    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

those  who  lived  on  and  benefited  from  them.  And  hence  it 
comes  about  that  the  average  amount  of  land  required  to  sup- 
port the  family  in  Utah  is  smaller  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  United  States." 

"Now  the  Federal  Government  must  co-operate  with  Utah 
and  Utah's  people  for  the  further  extension  of  the  irrigated 
area.  Some  of  the  most  important  provisions  of  the  Federal 
Act,  such  as  the  control  of  irrigation  works  by  the  communi- 
ties which  they  serve,  such  as  making  the  water  appurtenant  to 
the  land,  and  not  a  source  of  speculation  apart  from  the  land 
— all  that  was  based  upon  the  experience  of  Utah."  "Now 
one  of  the  tasks  that  the  Government  must  do  here  in  Utah  is 
to  build  reservoirs  for  the  storage  of  the  flood  water."  "Be- 
sides the  storage  of  water,  there  must  be  protection  of  the 
water  sheds,  and  that  is  why  I  ask  you  to  help  the  United 
States  Government  to  protect  the  water  sheds  by  protecting 
the  forests  upon  them." 

The  Strawberry  Valley  Project. — The  first  fruits  of  the 
National  Irrigation  Law  in  Utah  was  the  construction,  by  the 


STRAWBERRY    VALLEY    RESERVOIR. 


Government,  of  the  Strawberry  Valley  Reservoir  and  Canal. 
This  great  project,  completed  during  May,  1916,  tunnels  the 
Wasatch  Mountains  seventy-five  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  brings  upon  many  thousands  of  arid  acres  in  Utah 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


551 


Valley  the  waters  impounded  for  this  purpose  eastward  of  that 
rocky  range. 

Irrigation  Congresses. — President  Roosevelt's  timely  re- 
marks upon  the  reclamation  of  arid  lands  found  a  fitting  sup- 
plement in  the  National  Irrigation  Congress,  the  eleventh  ses- 
sion of  which  convened  at  Ogden  in  the  autumn  of  that  year. 
This  was  not  the  first  Irrigation  Congress  in  Utah,  one  having 
met  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  September,  1891,  when  sixteen  States 
and  Territories  were  represented.  The  meetings,  extending 
through  three  days,  were  held  in  the  Exposition  Building,  on 
the  Tenth  Ward  Square.  The  Ogden  gathering  was  "a  con- 
vention of  specific  significance"  to  the  States  and  Territories 
whose  arid  lands  were  to  be  reclaimed  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment under  the  provisions  of  the  National  Irrigation  Act- 
namely,  Arizona,  California,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Kansas,  Mon- 
tana, North  Dakota,  Nevada,  New  Mexico,  Oklahoma,  Ore- 
gon, South  Dakota,  Utah, 
Washington  and  Wyoming. 
Beginning  on  the  15th  of  Sep- 
tember, the  Congress  contin- 
ued four  days.  United  States 
Senator  W.  A.  Clark,  of  Mon- 
tana, presided  over  the  deliber- 
ations. A  prize  Irrigation 
Ode,  written  by  Mrs.  Virginia 
D.  McClurg,  of  Colorado 
Springs,  and  set  to  music  by 
John  J.  McClellan,  organist  of 
the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  was 
sung  at  the  opening  of  the 
session  by  the  Ogden  Taber- 
nacle Choir,  led  by  Joseph  Bal- 
lantyne.  Among  the  speakers 
were  Governor  Wells,  Senator 
Clark,  Secretary  Wilson,  Chief 
Engineer  Newell,  Chief  For- 
ester Pinchot,  John  Henry 
Smith  and  William  E.  Smythe, 
"The  Father  of  the  Irrigation 
Congress."  Letters  were  read 
from  President  Roosevelt  and  other  American  statesmen,  and 
among  the  visitors  were  representatives  of  the  French  and 
Mexican  governments. 

Soils  and  Products. — The  soils  in  this  region  are  said  to 
be  the  deepest  and  richest  in  the  United  States,  extending  in 
many  instances  to  a  depth  of  forty  feet.  Utah  produces  more 


SENATOR    W.    A.    CLARK. 


552    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


sugar  beets  and  barley  to  the  acre  than  any  other  State;  she 
is  tied  with  two  other  States  for  first  place  in  the  yield  of 
potatoes  to  the  acre,  and  is  second  among  the  States  in  the  yield 
of  wheat  per  acre.*  The  wheat  yield  on  dry  land  is  from  twelve 
to  thirty-five  bushels  an  acre,  and  on  irrigated  farms  sixty 
bushels  an  acre.  The  quality  of  the  grain  is  excellent.  Oats 
yield  from  fifty  to  eighty-five  bushels  an  acre.  Utah  barley 
weighs  over  fifty  pounds  to  the  bushel,  and  is  considered 
superior  to  any  other  produced  in  the  United  States.  Utah 
potatoes  are  famous  both  at  home  and  abroad.  About  one 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  are  devoted  to  the  raising 
of  sugar  beets.  Whole  families  cultivate  them  and  find  prof- 
itable employment  in  so  doing.  The  average  production  per 
acre  is  over  twelve  tons — in  Germany  it  is  ten  to  eleven  tons, 
and  in  Nebraska  eight  tons.  As  high  as  thirty-three  tons  per 
acre  have  been  produced  in  Utah.  Alfalfa,  a  forage  plant, 
flourishes  on  this  soil,  three  or  four  crops  a  year  being  raised 

in  the  lower  valleys,  where 
water  is  plentiful ;  while  upon 
rough,  dry,  and  stony  ground, 
at  least  one  crop  can  be  raised 
without  irrigation. 

Horticulture. — The  Utah 
fruits  are  superior  in  sweet- 
ness, firmness,  beauty  and  fine 
flavor.  Apples,  pears,  peaches, 
apricots,  cherries,  nectarines, 
plums,  grapes,  strawberries, 
raspberries,  currants,  and  all 
the  small  fruits  thrive.  At  the 
junction  of  the  Rio  Virgen  and 
Santa  Clara  rivers,  figs,  pome- 
granates, and  other  tropical 
fruits  abound.  At  the  Fifteenth 
National  Irrigation  Congress, 
held  at  Sacramento,  California, 
in  September,  1907,  Utah  won 
among  other  prizes  the  Hearst 
Sweepstakes  Trophy,  for  the 
best  collective  State  exhibit  of 
irrigated  land  products. f 
Utah's  agricultural  production  for  1915  is  shown  in  the 


PROFESSOR  JOHN  J.  M  CLELLAN, 


*"Facts  about  Utah,"  by  H.  T.  Haines,  Commissioner  of  Statis- 
tics, New  West  Magazine,  Salt  Lake  City,  June,  1916. 

tThe  principal  fruit-growing  districts  are  in  Box  Elder,  Weber, 
Utah,  Salt  Lake,  Grand  and  Washington  counties.  The  Green  River 
country  is  also  looming  up  as  a  great  fruit-growing  region. 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


553 


following  table,  furnished  by  the  Commissioner  of  Statistics: 


Amount 


Value 


Wheat,  bushels    8,225,000  $.  6,662,250 

Oats,  bushels   : 4,600,000  1,886,000 

Barley,  bushels    1,377,000  633,420 

Rye,   bushels    195,000  126,000 

Corn,   bushels    391,000  238,510 

Potatoes,  bushels   2,600,000  1,690,000 

Hay,  tons 988,000  8,398,000 

Sugar  beets,  tons   695,000  3,419,400 

Alfalfa  Seed,  tons  50,000  450,000 

Sweet  Clover,  tons  7,000  54,000 

Red   Clover,  tons    500  5,700 

Orchard  Fruit — 

Apples,  bushels   436,000  501,400 

Peaches,  bushels  247,000  123,000 

Pears,  bushels    . 38,000  32,000 

Orchard  Fruit  (including  cherries,  apricots,  plums  and 

prunes)     256,000 

Small  Fruit 700,000 

Nursery  Products  : 200,000 

Flowers  and  Plants   100,000 

Vegetables     1,500,000 

Dairy  Products    3,000,000 

Miscellaneous     1,000,000 

Eggs  and  Poultry  2.600,000 

Honey     100,000 

Live    Stock    10,000.000 

Wool,   pounds    16,000,000  3,520,000 


UTAH  RAMBOTJILLETT  S1IKKP. 


Stock  Raising. — All  the  farmers  have  horses  and  cattle, 
and  many  of  them,  sheep  and  swine.  The  yearly  wool  clip 
amounts  to  many  millions  of  pounds,  and  is  continually  in- 


554    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


creasing.  Much  of  this  is  worked  up  at  home.  Poultry  raising 
and  egg  production  flourish  in  connection  with  farming.  The 
number  and  value  of  live  stock  in  Utah  on  January  1st,  1916, 
were  as  here  indicated : 

Horses     146,000  $12,0^6,000 

Mules    2,000  156,000 

Milch   Cows 96,000  5,952,000 

Other  Cattle 408,000  14,606,400 

Sheep    2,090,000  1 1,286,000 

Swine    1 12,000  873,600 

An  Agricultural  Forecast. — President  John  A  Widtsoe 
forecasts  as  follows  the  three  directions  in  which  Utah  agri- 
culture promises  to  develop :  First,  the  live  stock  industry,  in 

which  dairying,  will  be  fore- 
most; second,  horticulture,  in 
which  the  fruit  interests  will 
predominate ;  and  thirdly,  arid 
farming,  or  the  production  of 
grains  and  other  crops  on  our 
deserts.  Bee-keeping,  floricul- 
ture, market  gardening,  etc., 
will  be  secondary  in  import- 
ance to  the  three  branches 
mentioned.  The  sugar  beet 
business  will  be  controlled  al- 
most entirely  by  the  number  of 
factories  in  operation.  The 
hog  and  beef  industry  will  be 
incidents  of  the  dairy  business. 
Sheep  and  cattle  on  the  range 
will  likely  decrease  as  land  be- 
comes better  utilized  for  gen- 
eral farm  purposes,  and  sheep 
and  cattle  on  the  farms  will 
probably  increase  in  almost  the 
same  ratio.  The  greatness  of 
the  sugar  beet  business  is  that 
its  product  is  shipped  out  as  a  manufactured  article.  The 
strength  of  the  dairy  busines  lies  in  the  same  fact — butter  and 
cheese  are  both  manufactured  products.  The  canneries  and 
fruit-drying  establishments  will  be  to  horticulture  what  the 
creamery  and  cheese  factory  is  to  dairying. 

The  Manufacturing  Interests. — While  Utah  is  mainly  an 
agricultural  and  a  mining  State,  she  is  also  known  for  some 
very  important  manufacturing  industries  that  flourish  within 
her  borders.  That  the  commonwealth  might  become  self-sus- 


DR.   JOHN  A.   WIDTSOE. 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT.  555 

taming,  was  the  dream  of  its  founders.  As  early  as  1852  a 
strong  effort  was  put  forth  to  awaken  the  people  to  a  realiza- 
tion of  the  necessity  existing  for  the  establishment  of  home  in- 
dustries. The  community  was  isolated,  a  thousand  miles  from 
outside  civilization,  with  no  better  means  of  communication 
than  the  ox  or  mule  wagon.  How  long  the  isolation  would 
continue  was  uncertain,  and  meanwhile  the  problem  confront- 
ing the  settlers  was  twofold.  They  must  either  produce  what 
they  consumed,  or  pay  local  merchants,  in  many  instances, 
four  or  five  times  the  worth  of  imported  goods.  This  condi- 
tion made  home  production  imperative.  In  1856  the  Deseret 
Agricultural  and  Manufacturing  Society  was  organized,  for 
the  special  purpose  of  encouraging  and  promoting  home  man- 
ufactures and  kindred  interests.  The  Society  held  regular 
autumnal  exhibitions  for  the  display  of,  and  awarding  of  prizes 
to,  the  best  products  of  farm,  factory,  and  industrialism  in 
general.  That  year  saw  the  first  Territorial  Fair,  the  fore- 
runner of  our  present  State  Fairs. 

The  Textile  Industry. — The  raising  of  flax,  silk,  cotton 
and  wool,  and  the  manufacture  of  cloth  and  various  articles 
from  these  products,  was  advocated  from  the  beginning.  In 
some  places  these  industries  were  established,  though  neces- 
sarily on  a  limited  scale.  The  people  were  poor,  and  in  most 
cases  were  obliged  to  co-operate.  Spinning  wheels,  hand 
looms,  and  carding  machines,  home-made  and  imported,  ap- 
peared at  a  very  early  date.  The  flax  industry  gradually 
waned,  and  about  the  year  1880  disappeared;  but  sericulture 
continued  its  experiments  and  manufactures,  as  did  enter- 
prises having  cotton  and  wool  as  their  basis.  The  decline  of 
the  textile  industry  was  largely  owing  to  the  advent  of  the 
railroad,  bringing  manufactures  from  abroad.  The  local  fac- 
tories were  unable  to  compete  with  centers  having  cheaper 
raw  materials,  cheaper  labor,  and  better  machinery. 

Sericulture. — Utah  is  a  natural  home  for  sericulture.  Dur- 
ing the  fore  part  of  the  '"fifties"  silk  worms  and  mulberry 
trees  were  imported  from  France,  and  Brigham  Young  and 
other  prominent  citizens  led  out  in  the  establishment  of  co- 
cooneries.and  the  raising  of  silk.  For  many  years,  at  the  Ter- 
ritorial and  State  Fairs,  there  have  been  exhibited  fine  speci- 
mens, not  only  of  raw  silk,  but  of  silk  fabric  made  into  dresses, 
shawls,  aprons,  handkerchiefs,  and  other  articles.  The  wife  of 
President  Hayes,  while  at  Salt  Lake  City,  in  September,  1880, 
was  presented  by  the  Ladies'  Relief  Society  with  an  elegant 
fischu  of  native  silk,  the  work  of  Mrs.  Ursenbach,  an  adept  in 
sericulture.  The  article  was  valued  at  seventy-five 'dollars. 
Mrs.  Hayes  was  delighted  with  the  gift,  and  assured  the  givers 
that  she  would  wear  it  on  state  occasions.  Later,  Miss  Susan 


556    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


B.  Anthony,  the  noted  suffragette,  was  presented  with  a  hand- 
some silk  gown,  by  the  ladies  of  the  Utah  Silk  Association. 
Allusion  has  previously  been  made  to  the  attractive  silk  ex- 
hibit sent  from  the  Territory  to  the  World's  Fair,  in  1893. 

Cotton  and  Wool. — Cotton  was  raised  in  Northern  Utah 
as  early  as  1851,  but  the  southern  part  of  the  State  is  a  far 
more  promising  field  for  such  an  industry.  In  1855  cotton 
seed,  brought  from  the  Southern  States,  was  planted  in  the 
Santa  Clara  Valley,  and  from  the  product  of  that  planting 
thirty  yards  of  cloth  were  made — the  first  cotton  fabric  manu- 
factured in  Utah.  The  cotton  seed — one  quart — was  sent  by 

Nancy  Pace  Anderson,  a 
Southern  lady  residing  at  Par- 
owan,  to  Jacob  Hamblin,  then 
a  missionary  among  the  In- 
dians on  the  Santa  Clara.  The 
cloth  was  made  by  Caroline 
Beck  Knight,  Maria  Wood- 
bury  Haskell,  and  Lyman 
Curtis.  The  ginning  and 
spinning  were  done  by  hand, 
and  the  weaving  on  a  treadle 
loom.  In  1858  Joseph  Home, 
heading  a  colony  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  established  a  cotton 
farm  on  the  Rio  Virgen.  The 
impetus  given  to  cotton  cul- 
ture in  Utah  by  the  Civil  War, 
which  well-nigh  ruined  the  in- 
dustry in  the  Southern  States, 
has  been  noted  in  a  former 
chapter.  In  1852  cotton  mills 
began  to  appear  at  Parowan, 
Springville  and  other  places. 
The  most  important  one  was 
built  at  Washington,  Washington  County,  in  1855  ;  it  was  also 
a  woolen  mill.  The  Southern  Utah  Co-operative  Mercantile 
Association  dealt  largely  in  cotton.  Part  of  the  raw  product 
went  to  California,  while  some  of  it  was  freighted  across  the 
plains  and  forwarded  to  New  York,  where  it  sold  at  $1.40  to 
$1.90  a  pound.  After  the  close  of  the  great  conflict,  the  cot- 
ton industry  revived  in  the  Southern  States  and  declined  in 
Utah. 

The  wool  industry  is  almost  as  old  as  the  commonwealth 
itself.  A  thousand  sheep  came  with  the  immigration  of  1848, 
and  the  first  public  carding  machine  was  set  up  in  Salt  Lake 
Valley  by  Amasa  Russell.  To  promote  this  industry  the 


JOSEPH    I1ORNE. 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


557 


Legislature  of  1852  appropriated  the  sum  of  two  thousand 
dollars.  At  Provo,  in  1851,  Shadrach  Holdaway  opened  a 
small  woolen  mill,  the  machinery  for  which  had  been  pur- 
chased in  St.  Louis.  Brigham  Young  had  a  carding  machine 
on  Parley's  Canyon  Creek,  and  Heber  C.  Kimball  one  on  City 
Creek.  Others  were  put  up  in  various  places.  Many  fam- 
ilies had  private  looms,  and  took  pride  in  making  their  own 


KNIGHT  WOOLEN   MILLS. 

clothing.  Men,  women,  and  children  dressed  in  home-made 
"sheep's  gray."  In  1873  two  woolen  mills — the  Wasatch  and 
the  Deseret — were  in  operation  near  Salt  Lake  City ;  and  at 
the  same  time  Ogden,  Brigham,  Grantsville,  Provo,  Beaver, 
Washington,  Springville,  Kingston,  and  West  Jordan  each 
had  one.  They  made  yarn,  jeans,  linseys  and  satinets.  The 
largest  and  most  successful  of  these  establishments — the 
Provo  Woolen  Mills — was  founded  in  June,  1869,  by  A.  O. 
Smoot  and  associates.  In  1870-1872  a  factory  building  was 
erected,  and  seventy  thousand  dollars  worth  of  machinery 
placed  and  started  to  running.  Next  year  the  first  cloth  was 
put  upon  the  market.  The  Provo  Manufacturing  Company 
had  a  capital  of  half  a  million  dollars.  They  carried  on  a  pros- 
perous manufacturing  business,  and  engaged  extensively  in 
the  wool  trade.  Their  mills  shut  down  in  October,  1906,  but 
have  since  resumed  operations  under  a  new  name,  that  of  the 
Knight  Woolen  Mills,  Jesse  Knight,  of  Provo,  being  the  main 
proprietor. 


558    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Sugar  Making. — Utah's  most  successful  manufacturing 
industry  at  the  present  time — if  we  except  the  smelting,  mill- 
ing and  refining  of  ores — is  the  making  of  beet  sugar.  The 
humble  and  unsuccessful  beginning  of  this  business,  in  1852, 
when  John  Taylor,  who  had  become  familiar  with  the  beet 
sugar  culture  in  France,  brought  from  Liverpool  to  Salt  Lake 
City  the  first  sugar  machinery,  has  already  been  mentioned. 
For  many  years  the  project  slept.  Great  quantities  of  sugar 
cane  were  raised,  and  molasses  and  a  crude  quality  of  brown 


ARTHUR  STAYNER. 


5LIAS   MORRIS. 


sugar  resulted  from  the  boiling  of  the  cane  juice.     But  the 
beet  sugar  idea  was  in  abeyance. 

About  1886  Arthur  Stayner,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  began  to 
agitate  the  subject  of  sugar  making.  He  devoted  a  great  deal 
of  time  to  working  up  a  sentiment  in  its  favor.  President 
Woodruff  and  the  leading  men  of  the  Church  became  deeply 
interested,  and  a  syndicate  was  formed  to  push  forward  the 
enterprise.  Heber  J.  Grant,  as  the  agent  of  Cannon,  Grant  & 
Company,  was  particularly  active  in  this  direction.  In  Aug- 
ust, 1889,  the  Utah  Sugar  Company  was  incorporated,  with 
Elias  Morris  as  President,  and  Arthur  Stayner  as  Secretary 
and  General  Manager.  In  1891  a  factory  was  built  at  Lehi, 
and  gradually  the  industry  extended,  until  now  there  are 
eleven  large  factories  in  Utah,  and  several  in  adjoining  States 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


559 


owned  by  Utah  people.  The. 
Utah  factories  are  at  Lehi, 
Ogden,  Logan,  Lewiston,  Gar- 
land, Brigham,  Layton,  West 
Jordan,  Spanish  Fork,  Payson, 
and  Elsinore.  There  are  also 
cutting  stations  at  Provo  and 
Springville,  from  which  the 
beet  juice  is  conveyed  by  pipe 
lines  to  Lehi.  The  output  of 
the  factories  operating  in  1915 
was  about  two  hundred  mil- 
lion pounds  of  sugar.  It  is 
shipped  north  to  Oregon,  west 
to  Nevada,  and  as  far  east  as 
the  Atlantic  Coast. 

The  Utah-Idaho  Sugar 
Company  is  under  the  general 
management  of  Thomas  R. 
Cutler,  with  Horace  G.  Whit- 
ney as  Secretary  and  Treas- 
urer. The  Amalgamated  Sugar 


IIEBER  J.   GRANT. 


BISHOP   C.   W.   NIBLEY. 


Company,  of  Ogden,  is  man- 
aged by  Leroy  R.  Eccles;  and 
the  Layton  Sugar  Company,  of 
Layton,  by  James  Ellison.  An- 
other name  very  prominently 
connected  with  the  sugar  busi- 
ness, and  with  other  large  en- 
terprises, is  that  of  Bishop 
Charles  W.  Nibley,  of  Salt 
Lake  City. 

Salt  Production. — Utah  is 
.a  land  of  salt.  There  are 
mountains  of  it  in  Juab,  San- 
pete  and  Sevier  counties,  and 
the  Great  Salt  Lake  holds 
within  its  briny  waters  an  in- 
exhaustible supply.  The  rock 
salt  in  Central  Utah  is  so  clear 
that  one  can  read  through  it, 
as  through  glass.  The  salt  in 
the  Lake  is  obtained  by  pump- 
ing the  brine  into  elevated 
flumes,  which  carry  it  inland 


560    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH, 

to  prepared  evaporating  ponds,  where  it  deposits  its  mineral 
elements  and  crystallizes  under  the  heat  of  the  sun.  The 
crude  salt  is  refined  in  mills  constructed  near  the  ponds,  and 
the  product  is  used  for  table  and  other  domestic  purposes, 
also  for  live  stock,  dairying,  manufacturing,  silver  reduction, 
and  the  packing  of  meats  and  hides. 

Up  to  1889  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  utilize  on  a  large 
scale,  or  in  any  but  a  crude  and  imperfect  manner,  these 
natural  saline  treasures.  That  year  the  Inland  Crystal  Salt 
Company  was  incorporated  by  Nephi  W.  Clayton,  Jere  Lang- 
ford  and  others,  who  built  the  first  salt  refinery,  and  later  sold 
their  business  to  Kansas  capitalists  at  a  large  profit.  In  1893 


THOMAS   R.    CUTLER. 


HORACE  G.    WHITNEY. 


Mr.  Clayton  and  associates  organized  the  Inter-Mountain  Salt 
Company,  which,  in  1898,  consolidated  with  the  first  named 
enterprise,  under  the  title  of  the  Inland  Crystal  Salt  Company. 
They  have  a  salt  farm  of  three  thousand  acres  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  manufacture  every 
year  about  forty  thousand  tons  of  salt,  representing  in  cash 
$250,000. 

Canneries. — The  canning  business  is  rapidly  assuming 
large  proportions.  There  are  many  fruit  and  vegetable  can- 
neries in  Utah,  most  of  them  in  Weber,  Davis  and  Box  Elder 
counties.  The  outside  market  for  this  product  is  in  the  sur- 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


561 


rounding  States  and  as  far  east  as  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Iowa  and 
Missouri. 

Miscellanies. — In  addition  to  the  industries  named,  Salt 
Lake  City,  Ogden,  Provo,  Logan,  and  Spanish  Fork  all  have 
shoe  factories.  Z.  C.  M.  I.  conducts  a  large  shoe  and  overall 
factory,  employing  about  two  hundred  men  and  women.  Utah 
has  brick-making  plants,  cement  works,  machine  shops  and 
foundries,  saw  mills,  flouring  mills,  planing  mills,  stone  quar- 
ries, lime  kilns,  potteries,  tanneries,  knitting  factories,  and 
creameries.  Concerns  for  the  manufacture  of  steam  boilers, 
iron  fencing,  lead  pipe,  picks,  brooms,  brushes,  vehicles,  mat- 
tresses, show  cases,  crackers,  ice,  confectionery,  vinegar,  plas- 
ter of  paris,  paper  boxes,  rubber  stamps,  picture  frames,  har- 
ness, upholstery,  chemicals,  gloves,  coffins,  mosaic  tiles,  and  an 
endless  variety  of  other  articles,  are  running  in  various  parts 
of  the  State. 

Growth  of  Mining. — From  1863  until  1865  mining  in  Utah 
was  an  infant  in  arms.  From  1870  it  was  a  youth,  strong 
and  vigorous,  and-  ten  years 
later  it  had  developed  into  ma- 
ture manhood.  Today  it  is  a 
giant,  and  still  growing.  The 
metal  output  of  the  State  in 
1915  aggregated  in  value  $61,- 
081,633.  For  1916  it  bids  fair 
to  reach  ninety  millions.  Utah 
ranks  second  among  the 
States  in  the  production  of 
silver,  third  in  lead,  fourth  in 
copper,  and  sixth  in  gold.  Her 
known  metal  product  for  gold, 
silver,  copper,  lead  and  zinc 
alone,  according  to  the  U.  S. 
Geological  Survey,  is  valued 
at  $691,301,832.  The  known 
dividends  paid  by  the  Utah 
metalliferous  mining  com- 
panies is  $131,000,000.  The 
estimated  contents  of  Utah's 
coal  fields  is  196,000,000,000  short  tons. 

And  yet  mining  in  Utah  may  be  said  to  have  only  just 
begun.  No  county  in  the  State  is  without  minerals  of  some 
kind.  Copper,  silver,  gold,  and  sulphur  of  the -purest  quality 
are  found  in  Millard;  Iron  County  has  mountains  of  the  metal 
for  which  it  was  named ;  and  the  Summit  coal  mines  have  been 
worked  for  a  generation.  In  Carbon  County  coal  mining  is 
the  leading  industry,  and  that  section,  with  parts  formerly 

35 


SAMUEL  NEWHOUSE. 


562    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


embraced  by  the  Uintah  and  Uncompahgre  Indian  reserva- 
tions, are  rich  in  hydrocarbons.  Some  of  these — such  as  gil- 
sonite  (gum  asphaltum)  and  elaterite  (a  sort  of  mineral  rub- 
ber)— are  peculiar  to  Utah.  Ozocerite  (mirueral  wax)  is  found 
in  but  one  place  outside  the  State.  Asphaltum  is  taken  from 
springs  and  lakes,  also  from  limestone  and  sandstone.  Min- 
eral oils  ooze  up  from  the  earth  along  the  shores  of  the  Great 
Salt  Lake  and  in  other  places.  Underlying  reservoirs  of  nat- 
ural gas  have  long  been  drawn  upon  for  domestic  uses.  Salt- 
peter, alum,  soda,  bismuth,  and  other  minerals  in  endless  vari- 
ety are  common.  Marble,  onyx,  chalcedony,  granite,  shales, 
and  all  kinds  of  building  stones  abound. 

Centers  of  Activity. — The  great  centers  of  mining  activity 
and  productiveness   are   Bingham,   Eureka,    and    Park    City. 

Important  developments  are 
also  going  on  in  Beaver  and 
Box  Elder  counties,  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  State.  Bing- 
ham, situated  in  the  Oquirrh 
Mountains,  about  twenty  miles 
southwest  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
is  the  oldest  mining  camp  in 
Utah.  Silver,  lead,  and  gold 
were  mined  there  early  in  the 
seventies.  Copper  was  also 
produced,  but  not  so  plenti- 
fully as  in  recent  years,  when 
modern  methods  of  handling 
these  ores  have  given  to  the 
old  camp  a  new  fame.  Since 
July,  1896,  when  Samuel  New- 
house  acquired  possession  of 
the  Highland  Boy  Mine,  Bing- 
ham has  undergone  a  complete 
transformation.  Up  to  that 
time,  only  the  ordinary  pro- 
cesses of  mining  were  em- 
ployed there,  but  now  immense 
steam  shovels,  capable  of  moving  seven  tons  of  earth  at  one 
scoop,  are  leveling  down  the  mountains.  The  characterizing 
feature  of  Utah  mining  today  is  not  in  the  richness  of  the 
finds,  but  in  the  vast  tonnage  of  copper  ores  handled.  Bing- 
ham's  prestige  as  a  copper-producing  camp  is  largely  due  to 
D.  C.  Jackling,  a  leading  mining  engineer,  whose  ideas,  prac- 
tically* applied,  have  made  possible  the  successful  handling 
of  these  low  grade  copper  ores. 

Beaver  Countv  also  has  immense  copper  deposits.     Near 


D.   C.    TACKLING. 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT.  563 

the  Cactus  group  of  mines  stands  Newhouse,  a  model  mining 
town,  built  by  the  rich  proprietor  whose  name  it  bears.  The 
recent  developments  in  that  district  and  in  Bingham  Canyon 
have  placed  Utah  near  the  top  of  the  list  of  the  great  copper 
states  of  the  Union. 

Tintic,  eighty-five  miles  southwest  of  the  Utah  capital,  is 
a  silver  mining  field,  though  lead,  copper,  and  gold  are  also 
found  there.  The  first  mines 
were  located  about  the  year 
1870.  Following  the  Sunbeam, 
and  the  Eureka  Hill,  came  the 
Bullion-Beck  and  the  Centen- 
nial Eureka,  both  of  which 
were  great  producers.  The  dis- 
trict has  many  other  noted 
properties.  The  principal 
towns  are  Eureka  and  Robin- 
son. Knightsville  is  a  temper- 
ance town,  founded  by  Jesse 
Knight  of  Provo.  Another  large 
owner  in  Tintic  is  Mr.  John 
Dern,  of  Salt  Lake  City. 

In  the  Wasatch  Moun- 
tains, thirty  miles  east  of  Salt 
Lake  Valley,  stands  Park  City, 
the  home  of  the  Ontario  Mine, 
which  created  the  town  and 
made  it  famous.  The  Silver 
King,  the  Judge,  the  Daly- West, 
and  other  rich  properties  have  DERN< 

perpetuated    its     fame.       The 

Ontario  is  one  of  the  deepest,  and  has  been  one  of  the 
most  prolific  mines  in  the  world.  It  has  more  than  sixty 
miles  of  underground  workings,  including  a  drain  tunnel  three 
miles  long,  through  which  rushes  a  huge  torrent  of  water 
drained  from  a  large  area  rich  in  minerals.  Hundreds  of 
men  are  employed  in  the  depths  of  the  Park  City  mines,  pick- 
ing, blasting,  and  hauling  the  glistening  galena  (silver-lead 
ore)  to  the  foot  of  great  shafts  up  which  the  tram  cars  con- 
taining it  are  hoisted.  The  hoists  are  run  by  steam  and  elec- 
tricity, which  also  lights  the  shafts  and  tunnels.  Among  the 
leading  mine  owners  of  Park  City  are  David  Keith,  Thomas 
Kearns,  John  J.  Daly,  Otto  Hanke,  W.  Mont  Ferry,  the  Bam- 
bergers,  and  the  Judge  Estate. 

Other  Mining  Camps. — In  Alta,  Big  Cottonwood, 
American  Fork,  and  Ophir  mining  revivals  are  in  progress. 
This  is  especially  noticeable  in  Ophir,  one  of  the  earliest  of 


564    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


local  mining  camps.  Marysvale,  Piute  County,  is  gold-bearing 
ground.  Frisco,  in  Beaver  County,  has  the  famous  Horn 
Silver  Mine,  and  at  Silver  Reef,  Washington  County,  rich 
silver  ores  are  found  in  petrified  trees,  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  forest  imbedded  in  the  sandstone ;  a  unique  geological 
feature,  unparalleled,  so  far  as  known,  in  any  other  mining 
region.  The  Deep  Creek  country,  in  Western  Utah,  needs 

( __^    but  a  railroad  to  make  of  it  a 

^saa"MHi*B*"^MM>    prosperous    mining   field.       In 

»|    that  district  is  found  the  semi- 
"jiMtitiis&iMft  precious  mineral,  tungsten,  the 

price  of  which  rose  to  a  phe- 
nomenal height  after  the  out- 
break of  the  European  war. 

Ore  Reduction  and  Refine- 
ment.— The  usual  methods  of 
treating  ores,  in  order  to  sep- 
arate the  metal  from  the  rock, 
prior  to  further  reduction  and 
refinement,  are  concentrating 
and  smelting.  Concentration  is 
a  process  whereby  most  of  the 
mineral  values  in  a  number  of 
tons  of  ore  are  condensed  into 
a  smaller  unit.  It  is  done  by 
crushing  the  mineral-bearing 
rock  with  iron  stamps,  or  in  a 
huge  crusher  shaped  like  a  cof- 
fee mill,  and  then  passing  it, 
with  water,  over  shaking  ta- 
bles, where  the  rock  is  washed 
away,  leaving  the  heavier  metallic  particles.  Ores  are  smelted 
in  furnaces,  where  they  are  mixed  with  fluxes  of  iron,  silica, 
and  lime,  which  cause  them  to  yield  readily  to  the  heat.  The 
metal  product  is  called  matte,  and  in  a  more  refined  state, 
bullion. 

Smelters  and  Mills. — Conditions  in  Utah  are  very  favor- 
able to  the  smelting  industry.  Most  of  the  smelters  and  mills 
are  in  Salt  Lake  Valley,  which  has  become  a  great  ore-reduc- 
ing center,  treating  not  only  the  product  of  local  mines,  but 
also  ores  from  other  States.  One  of  the  largest  smelting  plants 
in  existence,  is  that  of  the  American  Smelting  and  Refining 
Company,  at  Garfield,  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  Great  Salt 
Lake.  Near  by  stand  two  concentrating  mills,  owned  by  the 
Utah  Copper  Company.  These  mills — the  largest  in  the  world 
—handle  thirty-five  thousand  tons  of  ore  each  day,  and  are 
being  increased  to  a  capacity  of  fifty  thousand.  The  Inter- 


DAVID  KEITH. 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


565 


national  Smelter,  in  Tooele  Valley,  is  a  worthy  rival  of  the 
great  plant  at  Garfield.  The  United  States  Smelting,  Refining 
and  Mining  Company  has  a  lead-silver  smelting  plant  at  Mid- 
vale,  and  at  Newhouse  there  is  a  mammoth  modern  concen- 
trator. 

Mercur  and  the  Cyanide  Process. — Up  to  June,  1912,  Mer- 
citr,  in  Camp  Floyd  district,  was  the  heaviest  gold  producer 
in  Utah.  Quicksilver  (mercury)  was  also  mined  there;  hence 
the  name — Mercur.  This  town,  though  now  dead,  will  be  re- 
membered as  the  cradle  of  the  cyanide  process  of  gold  extrac- 
tion. "By  the  usual  amalgamation  process,"  wrote  Professor 
J.  H.  Paul,  of  the  University  of  Utah,  while  Mercur  was  at 
the  height  of  its  prosperity,  "from  forty  to  sixty  per  cent  of 


THE  AMERICAN  SMELTER,  GARFIELD. 

the  gold  was  left  in  the  tailings  or  refuse  ore.  The  ore  was 
/* rushed  and  passed  over  copper  plates  covered  with  quick- 
silver, which  collected  the  free  gold  as  the  pulverized  ore  was 
washed  over  the  plates  in  water.  This  quicksilver  amalgam 
was  then  heated  in  retorts  and  the  mercury  was  distilled  off 
and  collected  for  further  use.  The  gold  left  behind  was  made 
into  bricks.  The  cyanide  process  *  *  *  extracts 

from  seventy  to  ninetv-five  per  cent  of  the  gold.  *  *  *  At 
the  great  cyanide  mill  of  Mercur.  which  treats  about  eight 
hundred  tons  of  ore  and  uses  six  hundred  pounds  of  cyanide 
each  day,  this  deadly  stuff  is  simply  shoveled  into  tanks  of 
water  and  dissolved.  The  ore,  a  soft,  yellowish  rock,  is  ground 


566    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

fine  and  soaked  for  twenty-four  hours  in  the  cyanide  solution, 
which  dissolves  the  gold.  The  next  thing  is  to  get  the  gold 
from  the  solution,  which  is  done  by  passing  the  liquid  through 
a  series  of  compartments  filled  with  zinc  shavings,  or  into  a 
tank  containing  zinc  dust  and  stirred  by  a  jet  of  air.  The  dis- 
solved gold  now  deserts  the  solution  and  clings  to  the  zinc. 
The  water  is  drawn  off,  more  cyanide  is  shoveled  into  it,  and 
it  is  again  ready  for  use.  Weak  sulphuric  acid  is  added  to  the 
zinc  dust  and  shavings,  and  they  are  dissolved;  the  zinc  solu- 
tion is  drawn  off,  leaving  the  gold  behind  in  the  fine  slime. 
This  mud  is  then  filter-pressed,  dried,  ground,  mixed  with  re- 
agents, and  melted.  The  gold  sinks  to  the  bottom  and  is 
finally  run  off  into  molds,  forming  real  gold  bricks  worth  from 
$20,000  to  $30,000  apiece." 

Railroads. — Earlier  chapters  of  this  history  have  dealt 
with  the  pioneer  railroads,  general  and  local,  and  with  the 
advent  of  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Railroad,  in  1883.  The 
company  that  built  the  D.  and  R.  G.  has  owned  and  operated 
for  many  years  a  branch  line  from  Thistle  Valley  Junction 
through  Sanpete  Valley,  as  far  south  as  Marysvale.  It  has 
also  acquired  or  constructed  branch  roads  to  Bingham,  Tin- 
tic,  Park  City,  Heber,  and  the  coal  fields  in  Emery  and  Car- 
bon counties. 

The  Oregon  Short  Line. — The  Oregon  Short  Line  Rail- 
road Company  was  organized  at  Salt  Lake  City  in  February, 
1897.  Acquiring  possession  of  the  Utah  Central,  Utah  North- 
ern, Utah  Southern,  Utah  Southern  Extension,  and  Salt  Lake 
and  Western  lines,  it  extended  its  system  northward  and  south- 
ward. With  its  western  connection,  the  Oregon-Washington 
Railroad  and  Navigation  Company,  it  now  reaches  from  Salt 
Lake  City  to  Seattle,  penetrating  by  numerous  branches  the 
farming  and  mining  districts  of  Northern  Utah,  Idaho,  West- 
ern Wyoming,  Montana,  and  Eastern  Oregon.  The  comple- 
tion of  the  Yellowstone  Park  branch  during  1908  greatly  in- 
creased the  tourist  travel  through  the  State.  The  Oregon 
Short  Line  is  included  in  the  Union  Pacific  system,  of  which 
E.  E.  Calvin  is  President.  The  General  Passenger  Agent  of 
the  Short  Line  is  a  Utah-born  man,  Mr.  D.  S.  Spencer,  of  Salt 
Lake  City. 

Across  the  Lake. — On  the  Southern  Pacific,  between  Og- 
den  and  Lucin,  Utah,  a  remarkable  piece  of  railroad  engineer- 
ing and  construction  was  completed  in  1903.  It  is  known  as 
the  Great  Salt  Lake  Cut-off,  and  is  one  hundred  and  three 
miles  in  length,  about  one-third  of  it  built  upon  trestle  work 
and  fills-in  over  the  waters  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  Formerly 
the  track  curved  around  the  northern  shore,  and  trains  were 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


567 


compelled  to  climb  the  long  grades  of  Promontory  Hill,  one 
hundred  and  four  feet  to  the  mile.  Helper  engines  were 
necessary,  entailing  an  expense  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a 
day.  The  Cut-off  not  only  saves  this  heavy  expense,  but 
shortens  the  distance  between  Salt  Lake  City  and  San  Fran- 
cisco more  than  forty  miles.  The  scheme  for  the  improvement, 
which  cost  four  million  dollars,  originated  with  President  Col- 
lis  P.  Huntington,  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Company,  and  the 


E.   E.   CALVIN. 


D.  S.  SPENCER. 


plans,  perfected  after  his  death,  were  approved  and  executed 
by  E.  H.  Harriman,  when  he  took  charge  of  the  road. 

The  Salt  Lake  Route. — The  Los  Angeles  and  Salt 
Lake  Railroad  connects  the  capital  of  Utah  with  the  prin- 
cipal cities  and  towns  of  Southern  California.  Comprising  the 
old  Utah-Nevada,  Utah  Southern,  and  Utah  Southern  Exten- 
sion— the  two  latter  acquired  from  the  Oregon  Short  Line — 
"The  Salt  Lake  Route/'  as  it  is  popularly  termed,  crosses  the 
State  line  at  Uvada,  in  Iron  County,  and  follows  the  early 
emigrant  trail  across  the  desert,  passing  through  the  great 
mining  fields  of  Southern  Nevada.  The  man  whose  millions 
made  possible  this  enterprise-  was  W.  A.  Clark,  of  Montana. 
There  is  a  cut-off  between  Stockton  and  Lynn  Junction,  and 
branch  lines  from  Lehi  Junction  to  Boulter,  from  Tintic  to  the 


568    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

Tintic  Mining  District,  from  Delta  to  Lucern,  and  from  Mil- 
ford  to  Frisco. 

Western  Pacific  and  Other  Lines. — The  Western  Pacific 
Railway,  built  late  in  the  nineties,  connects  Salt  Lake  City 
with  San  Francisco.  Several  miles  of  its  roadbed  extends 
across  the  southern  end  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  The  Salt 
Lake  and  Ogden  (the  Bamberger  line)  parallels  the  Oregon 
Short  Line  and  Denver  &  Rio  Grande  through  Davis  County. 
The  Salt  Lake  and  Los  Angeles,  whose  original  destination 
was  Southern  California,  operates  between  Salt  Lake  City 
and  Saltair,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Lake.  Interurban  lines 
more  recently  constructed  are  the  Salt  Lake  and  Utah  (the 
Orem  road)  between  Salt  Lake  City  and  Payson ;  and  the 
Ogden,  Logan  and  Idaho,  between  Ogden  and  Preston. 


SIMON   BAMBERGER. 


W.  C.  OREM. 


Street  Railways. — It  was  August,  1889,  when  the  first 
electric  cars  appeared  upon  the  streets  of  the  Utah  capital. 
Within  a  year  the  entire  system  of  the  Salt  Lake  City  Rail- 
road was  changed  from  horse-power  to  electric  traction.  In 
1902  the  owners,  A.  W.  McCune,  Francis  Armstrong,  and 
others,  bought  out  the  Rapid  Transit,  a  competing  system,  and 
this  consolidation,  merging  into  the  Utah  Light  and  Power 
Company,  became  known  as  the  Utah  Light  and  Railway 
Company.  It  was  purchased  by  E.  H.  Harriman  in  1906,  and 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


569 


improved.     The   system  covers 
Salt   Lake  City^  and  runs  to 

Fort     Douglas,     Murray     and 

other  suburban  points.    One  of 

the  latest  developments  of  this 

kind  is  the  Emigration  Canyon 

Railroad,   built   by    Le    Grand 

Young  and  associates.    Ogden, 

Provo,  Logan  and  Brigham  all 

have  electric    street    railways, 

the   first   named   extending  up 

Ogden  Canyon. 

Telephone  and  Phonograph. 
—The     telephone     was     intro- 
duced into  Utah  by  A.  Milton 

Musser,   who   also   brought   in 

the  phonograph,  and  gave  ex- 
hibitions of  the  powers  of  both 

instruments  at  his  home  town 

—Salt    Lake    City.      The    tele- 
phone came  in  February,  1378. 

Mr.  Musser  held  the  agency  for 

Utah.   He  connected  Salt  Lake 

City   and    Ogden    temporarily,  LE  GRAND  YOUNG,  -v 

and  established  several  small 
circuits  at  the  capital.  Since 
then  great  telephone  systems 
have  taken  the  field,  and  quick 
communication  is  common  all 
over  the  State.  The  Bell  Tele- 
phone Company  began  busi- 
ness at  the  Utah  capital  in 
1880,  with  an  exchange  of  less 
than  one  hundred  subscribers, 
but  soon  acquired  possession 
of  two  small  isolated  plants  at 
Park  City  and  Ogden,  and 
opened  its  first  long  distance 
line  between  the  former  place 
and  Salt  Lake  City.  In  1902 
there  arose  a  strong  competi- 
tor— the  Utah  Independent 
Telephone  Company,  whose 
system  embraced  the  principal 
towns  and  mining,  camps 
throughout  the  State.  Most  of 
the  small  plants  distant  from 
the  capital  were  absorbed  by 


GEORGE  Y.  WALLACE, 


570    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

one  or  the  other  of  these  large  companies,  which  subsequently 
merged  into  one.  No  Utah  name  is  more  intimately  connected 
with  the  telephone  business  than  that  of  Mr.  George  Y.  Wal- 
lace. 

Electric  Light  and  Power. — The  first  local  experiments 
in  electric  lighting  were  made  on  the  streets  of  Salt  Lake  City 
about  the  year  1880.  At  that  time  gas  was  used  for  street 


HOTEL  UTAH. 


and  house  lighting.  Subsequently  the  Salt  Lake  and  Ogden 
Gas  and  Electric  Light  Company  operated  gas-making  plants 
and  steam-generating  stations  in  the  two  cities.  During  1894 
a  power  plant  was  built  in  Big  Cottonwood  Canyon,  the  ob- 
ject being  to  use  the  waters  of  that  creek  to  generate  elec- 
tricity for  lighting,  heating  and  propelling  purposes.  Eleven 
years  later  a  similar  plant  was  put  in  lower  down  the  stream, 
to  furnish  power  for  the  Salt  Lake  City  Railroad,  which  had 
been  generating  its  electric  force  by  steam.  Next  came  the 
Pioneer  Power  Plant  in  Ogden  Canyon  (1897).  The  owners 
of  that  enterprise  secured  a  contract  for  street  lighting  in 
Salt  Lake  City.  In  1897  and  1901  the  Telluride  Power  Com- 
pany, a  Colorado  corporation,  put  power  plants  in  Provo  and 
Logan  canyons,  and  in  1903  the  Utah  Sugar  Company  placed 
one  in  Bear  River,  to  operate  in  connection  with  its  irrigation 
system.  These  six  water  power  plants  now  furnish,  in  con- 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


571 


junction  with  a  steam  generating  plant  at  Salt  Lake  City,  elec- 
trical energy  to  the  railway  and  lighting  system  and  manufac- 
turing institutions  of  Salt  Lake  City  and  Ogden.  Hundreds 
of  miles  of  transmission  lines  are  used  for  this  purpose.  Lo- 
gan has  a  power  plant  of  its  town,  furnishing  nearly  all  the 


NEWHOUSE  HOTEL. 

electricity  consumed  by  that  city.  The  Telluride  Company 
sells  a  portion  of  its  power  to  the  Utah  Light  and  Traction 
Company,  and  with  the  remainder  supplies  mining  camps  and 
rural  towns. 

The  Present  Status. — Utah,  with  her  twenty-eight  coun- 
ties, containing  124  cities  and  towns,  has  a  collective  popula- 
tion of  429,191,  less  than  one-third  of  which  is  found  in  Salt 
Lake  City,  the  capital  of  the  State.  While  the  principal  occu- 
pations of  the  people  are  farming,  stock-raising,  mining  and 
manufacturing,  the  learned  professions  and  the  fine  arts  have 


572    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

many  representatives  among  them.  Educationally,  Utah  is 
proudly  in  advance  of  most  of  the  States  of  the  Union.  The 
percentage  of  illiteracy  for  native  whites  is  but  0.4,  and  for 
the  entire,  population,  including  foreign  born,  but  2.5.  The 
average  death  rate  is  10.8  to  the  thousand ;  that  of  the  whole 


ST.   MARY  S  CATHEDRAL. 

United  States  being  16.5.  Apart  from  alms-houses  and, asy- 
lums, there  are  thirteen  benevolent  institutions  in  the  State. 
Eight  of  these  are  hospitals,  chief  among  them  the  St.  Mark's, 
the  Holy  Cross,  and  the  Dr.  William  H.  Groves  Latter-day 
Saints  Hospital,  in  Salt  Lake  City.  At  Ogden,  the  State  has 
an  institution  for  the  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind.  The  Dee  Hos- 
pital is  also  located  there.  The  Industrial  School  at  Ogden, 
and  the  Mental  Hospital  at  Provo  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. In  different  parts  there  are  various  chantable  institu- 
tions, provided  by  private  associations  or  religious  bodies.  The 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


573 


in  ill 


•   • 

i!"   ' 

-''  -•  --'•  -  *  ' 


f  f  *  .•  f 


\    I         1 


GROVES    L.   D.   S.    HOSPITAL. 


HOLY  CROSS  HOSPITAL. 


574    WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 

National  Guard,  with  headquarters  at  Salt  Lake  City,  consists 
of  cavalry,  artillery  and  infantry,  with  hospital  corps.  Total 
strength,  December  30,  1915,  thirty-two  officers  and  five  hun- 
dred and  twelve  men.  The  assessed  valuation  of  property  of 
all  kinds  is  $540,500,000. 

Great   Structures. — Utah   has   a   number  of  great   struc- 
tures, some  of  palatial  magnificence.     Most  of  these  are  at 


DEAF,   DUMB   AND   BLIND   INSTITUTE,   OGDEN. 

Salt  Lake  City.  The  Temple  and  the  Tabernacle  have  long 
been  noted.  Among  the  edifices  more  recently  constructed 
are  the  Saltair  Pavilion,  the  Deseret  News  Building,  St.  Mary's 
Cathedral,  the  Boston  and  Newhouse  Buildings,  the  Hotel 
Utah,  the  Walker  Bank,  the  Newhouse  Hotel,  the  State  Cap- 
itol, and  the  General  Church  offices.  Saltair,  built  in  1903,  is 
the  largest  bathing  pavilion  in  the  world.  The  Hotel  Utah 
was  opened  in  1912;  the  Newhouse  in  1915.  The  State 
Capitol,  constructed  of  native  granite,  at  a  cost  of  two  and  a 
half  million  dollars,  stands  on  Capitol  Hill,  at  the  head  of  State 
Street,  upon  grounds  set  apart  and  improved  for  the  purpose. 
Begun  in  April,  1913,  the  building  was  completed  in  July,  1915  ; 
the  corner  stone  having  been  laid  the  year  before. 

A  Final  Word. — Utah's  past  is  known — partly  from  the 
story  told  in  these  pages.  Her  present  is  an  open  book,  which 
one  may  read  at  will.  But  what  of  the  future — the  unborn 
future?  In  what  directions  will  the  State  expand,  and  what 


RESOURCES  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 


575 


will  be  the  sum  and  crown  of  its  achievements?  The  answers 
to  these  questions  will  be  found,  first,  in  the  character  of  the 
people;  second,  in  the  resources  of  this  wonderful  and  pro- 
lific region;  third,  in  the  vocations  pursued  and  the  institutions 
founded  and  fostered  here.  One  thing  is  certain — the  begin- 
nings of  a  mighty  empire  have  been  laid,  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  superstructure  yet  to  rise  will  be  in  every  way 


THE  UTAH   STATE  CAPITOL. 

worthy  of  the  massive  foundations.  Let  none  be  deceived, 
however,  as  to  the  true  sources  of  strength,  or  the  real  sub- 
stance of  prosperity.  Farms  and  factories,  flocks  and  harvests, 
gold  and  silver,  railroads  and  power  plants — these  are  not  the 
State  of  Utah,  though  they  help  to  compose  the  common- 
wealth. They  are  of  the  body,  without  which  the  spirit  would 
be  imperfect;  while  the  body  without  the  spirit  would  be  dead. 
The  spirit  of  Utah  is  in  the  men  and  women  of  Utah.  Her  true 
wealth,  her  real  prosperity,  is  in  the  virtue  and  integrity  of  her 
sons  and  daughters.  In  the  character  and  intelligence  of  the 
people  lie  the  strength  and  perpetuity  of  the  State. 


Index 


"A  Bit  Like  a  Sermon",  544. 
Agricultural  College,  The,  458,  540. 
Agricultural  Forecast,  An,  554. 
Agricultural  Production  for  1915, 

553. 

Agriculture,  547. 
Aiken  Case,  The,  315. 
Alexander,  Colonel,  144,  147. 
Alleged  Rebellion,  An,  118. 
Almost  a  Parallel,  234. 
American  Party,  The,  528. 
Amnesty,  An  Offer  of,  438. 
"And   a   Little    Child   Shall   Lead 

Them,"  492. 

"Ann  Eliza  Case,"  The,  298,  300. 
Anti-"Mormon"    Legislation,   242. 
"Anti-Mormonism"  in  Power,  263, 

375. 
Anti-Polygamy     Movement,     332, 

343,  366. 

Approaching  Storm,  An,  366. 
"Argonauts,"  The,  59. 
Arizona  and  Mexico,  In,  394. 
Arizona,  Matters  in,  392,  455. 
Arkansas  Company  of  Emigrants, 

131. 

Armstrong,  Mayor  Frank,  461. 
Associated  Press  Tactics,  275. 
Attempts  at  Reconstruction,  247. 
Auditor  and  Treasurer,   Case  of, 

475. 
Axtell,  Governor  Samuel  B.,  243, 

297. 

B 

Babbitt,  Colonel  Almon  W.,  112. 
Baker  Perjury,  The,  281. 
Baskin,  Judge  R.  N.,  134,  236,  243. 
Bassett  Case,  The,  431. 
Bates  Supersedes  Baskin,  281. 
Battle  Creek  Fight,  67. 
Battleship  "Utah,"  The,  545. 
Bear  Lake  Valley  Colonized,  191. 
Bear  River  Battle,  190. 
Beet  Sugar,  94. 
Benson  Scheme,  The,  26. 
Bernhisel,  Dr.  John  M.,  54,  76,  95. 
Better  Days  at  Hand,  454. 
Bishop  Brown's  Defense,  402. 
Black,  Attorney-General  Jeremiah 
S.,  169,  365. 


Black  Hawk  War,  Expenses  and 
Losses  of,  205. 

Black  Hawk  War,  The,  204. 

Elaine's  Intervention,  485. 

Blair,  Seth  M.,  72. 

Bloodless  Campaign,  A,  145. 

Bolton,  Curtis  E.,  120. 

Bonneville,  Captain  Benjamin,  14. 

Bonneville,  Lake,  2,  3. 

Bowles,  Samuel,  199,  241. 

Box  Elder  and  Weber  Controver- 
sies, 481. 

Brandebury,  Lemuel  G.,  72,  79. 

Brannan,  Samuel,  25,  59. 

Brassfield  Affair,  207. 

Bridger,  Colonel  James,  12,  34. 

Brigham  City  Election,  The,  448. 

Br,occhus,  Perry  E.,  72,  79. 

Brown,  Captain  James,  42. 

Buchanan,  President  James,  120, 
159. 

Buffington,  Joseph,  72. 

Burton's  "City  of  the  Saints,"  175. 

Burton,  General  Robert  T.,  144, 
186,  205,  316. 

Business  vs.  Politics,  455. 


Calamities,  A  Year  of,  110. 
California,  Conquest  of,  24;  Bran- 
nan  Colony  in,  25. 
California,  Emigrants,  129. 
California  Volunteers,  188. 
Cameron,  Fort,  309. 
Campbell's  Protest,  336. 
Camp  Douglas  Founded,  189. 
Camp  Floyd  Indignant,  170. 
Camp  Scott,  149,  152. 
Caine,  Captain  Joseph  E.,  519. 
Caine,  John  T.,  363,  385,  482. 
Cane  Creek  Massacre,  372. 
Canneries,  560. 
Cannon,  Angus  M.,  393,  398. 
Cannon,     Captain     John    Q.,    519, 

OMW« 

.Cannon,  George  Q.,  43,  231,  273, 
293,  335,  336,  339,  427,  428,  429, 
464,  483. 

Capital,  Location  of  the,  78. 

Carbon  County  Strike,  The,  523. 

Cardenas,  9. 

Carson,  "Kit,"  12,  13. 

Cedar  Fort  Raid,  162. 


578      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH 


Centers  of  Activity,  562. 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  The,  455. 

Church's  Attitude,  536. 

Churches  and  Schools,  231. 

Church  Influence,  340. 

Church  Leaders,  From  the,  494. 

Church     Personal    Property    Re- 
turned, 502. 

Citizenship,  Applications  for,  478. 

City  Creek,  2. 

City  Projected,  A,  41. 

Civic  Officers,  ,53. 

Civilization  and  Savagery,  18. 

Civil  War  Period,  The,  178. 

Clawson,  Bishop  H.  B.,  404. 

Clawson  Case,  The,  381,  384,  385. 

Cleveland,  President  Gr-over,  415. 
435. 

Cliff  Dwellers,  8. 

Clinton,  Dr.  Jeter,  310. 

Coalville  Affair,  The,  317. 

Cohabitation  Denned,  401. 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  199,  240. 

Collin-McMurrin  Encounter,  The, 
420. 

Colonists,  Character  of  the,  64. 

Colonization,   179,   191. 

Colonization,  Political,  477. 

Colorado  River,  2. 

Community  in  Mourning,  A,  374. 

Connor,   General   P.   E.,   187,   196, 

235. 

Conservative     "Gentile"    Opposi- 
tion, 483. 
Constitutional     Convention,     285, 

354,  504. 

Constitution  Ratified,  505. 
Constructive  Cohabitation,  397. 
Convictions    and    Pardons,    Num- 
ber of,  465. 

Cooke,  Colonel  P.  St.  George,  148. 
Co-operative  Movement,  The,  226. 
Coronado,  9. 
Cotton  and  Wool,  556. 
Court  of  Last  Resort,  In  the,  484. 
Cradlebaugh,  Judge,  165,  167,  168. 
Cragin  Bill,  The,  242. 
Cricket  Plague,  The,  48. 
Crime  Against  Utah,  A,  129. 
Crusade,  Methods  of  the,  388. 
Crusade  of  Calumny,  A,  339,  375. 
Crusade,  Outside  of  Utah,  391. 
Cullom  Bill,  The,  243,  278. 
Cullom^Struble  Bill,  The,  482. 
dimming,   Governor  Alfred,    127, 

148,  153,  154,  15,5,  166,  167,  177. 
Cumming,  Mrs.  Alfred,  158. 
Cutler,  Governor,  540. 


"Daily     Telegraph"     Established, 

"Danite"  Band,  120. 

Dark  Before  the  Dawn,  The,  435. 

Davis  County,  47. 

Dawson,  Governor,  182. 

Day  of  Lenity  Dawns,  A,  463. 

Declaration  and  Protest,  413. 

Defense  Fund,  389. 

Democracy  Again  Triumphs,  497. 

Democracy,  The  Young,  386. 

Democracy  Triumphant,  385. 

Deputy  Marshal  in  the  Toils,  A, 

420. 

Deseret  Mint,  61. 
Deseret  News,  The,  88,   160,  231 

409. 

Deseret,  Provisional  State  of,  53. 
Desert,  Heart  of  the,   1. 
Disappointing  Statute,  A,  407. 
Discontented  Officials,  79. 
Disfranchi^ement,    Proposed,   482. 
Donner  Party,  The,  16;  Its  Tragic 

Fate,  17. 
Doty,     Governor     James    Duane, 

193,  200. 
Douglas-Clayton    Hearing,     The, 

350. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  157. 
Dramatics  in  Utah,  89. 
Drummond,    Judge    William    W., 

108,  118. 

Dry  Farming,  548. 
Duke's    Company    of    Emigrants, 

130,  131. 

Durkee,  Governor  Charles,  203. 
Dyer,  Marshal  Frank,  433,  451. 


Early  Events  in  the  Valley,  45. 

East  and  West  Shake  Hands,  221. 

Ecclesiastical  Changes,  524. 

Echo  and  Coalville  Railroad,  222. 

Echo  Canyon,  16. 

Echo  Canyon  War,  The,  142,  143, 
144,  145,  H6,  147,  149,  150,  163. 

Edmunds  Bill,  The,  342,  344. 

Edmunds  Law  Declared  Consti- 
tutional, 396. 

Edmunds-Tucker  Law,  The,  445, 
446,  447. 

Educational  Spirit,  The,  109. 

Election  Returns,  335. 

Election  Riot,  296. 

Electrical  Proclamation,  An,  220. 


INDEX. 


579 


Electric  Light  and  Power,  ,570. 

Elk  Mountain  Mission,  The,  112. 

Emery,  Governor  George  W.,  297. 

Emigrants  Rescued  by  "Mor- 
mons," 130. 

Emigration  Canyon,  16. 

Emma  Mine,  The,  224. 

Enabling  Act,  The,  503. 

End  of  a  Cycle,  The,  474. 

Englebrecht   Case,  The,  267,  288. 

Enterprises  and  Improvements, 
87. 

Escalante  and  Dominguez,  9. 

Escheat  and  Forfeiture  Con- 
firmed, 484. 

Escheated  Real  Estate  Returned, 
508. 

Evans  Case,  The,  385. 

Evarts  Circular,  The,  333. 

Evenly  Developed  State,  An,  547. 

Exciting  Campaign,  An,  476. 

Exposition  Car,  The,  456. 

Extension  of  Settlements,  87. 


False  Telegrams  Refuted,  289. 

Famine,  Almost  a,  57. 

Federal  and  Territorial  Prisoners, 
271. 

Federal  Appointees,  72,  77,  163, 
193,  294,  387,  437,  462,  469,  471. 

Federal  Courts  Without  Funds, 
269. 

Federal  Officials  Versus  the  Peo- 
ple, 192. 

Federal  Vacancies  Filled,  85. 

Ferguson,  General  James  E.,  164. 

Final  Battle,  A,  482. 

First  Birth  and  Death  in  the  Col- 
ony, 43. 

First  Census,  75. 

First  Dramatic  Presentation,  89. 

First  Election,  55. 

First  Election  after  National 
Alignments,  494. 

First  Government  Mail  Service, 
87. 

First  Inhabitants,  The,  8. 

First  Money,  61,  62. 

First  Newspaper,  88. 

First  Plowing  and  Planting,  40. 

First  Political  Convention,  54. 

First  Presidency,  Epistle  from 
the,  412. 

First  Schools,  45,  88. 

First  State  Legislature,  508. 

First  Territorial  Election,  75. 

First  U.  S.  Court  in  Utah,  83. 


Fitch,  Thomas,  243,  271,  277,  286. 

Food  Problem,  The,  51. 

Fort  Bridger,  16,  35. 

Forty-fifth  State,  The,  506. 

Free  Public  Library,  The,  ,542. 

Fremont,  Captain  John  C,  1,  11, 
24,  25. 

Further  Legislation  Recommend- 
ed, 407. 

Fusion  Movement,  A,  458. 


Garfield,  President,  Assassination 
of,  341. 

G.  A.  R.  Visitors,  431. 

General  Assembly,  55. 

"Gentile"  Activities,  206. 

"Gentile"  Exodus,  A  Proposed, 
212. 

"Gentile  League  of  Utah,"  The, 
288.  ^ 

"Gentile"  Opportunity,  The,  236. 

Gladstone  and  "Mormon"  Emi- 
gration, 334. 

Godbeite  Influence,  248. 

Godbeite  Movement,  The,  239, 
243. 

Godbe,  William  S.,  239,  244. 

Gold  Discovery,  The  California, 
58. 

Gold  Fever,  The,  61. 

Governor's  Proclamation  and  Re- 
port, 440. 

Government  Train  Burned,  145, 
146. 

Gowans  Case,  The,  410. 

"Grace  Greenwood"  and  Brigham 
Young,  277. 

Grand  Jurors,  Unconverted,  410. 

Grant,  Captain  Frank  A.,  517. 

Grant,  Jedediah  M.,  82. 

Grant,  President  U.  S.,  302. 

Grasshopper  Scourge,  213. 

Great  Basin,  Beginnings  of  Gov- 
ernment in  the,  53. 

Great  Basin,  The,  1,  2,  20. 

"Great  Half-way  Place,"  The,  206. 

Great  Salt  Lake,  3,  4,  8,  11. 

Great  Salt  Lake  City  (see  Salt 
Lake  City). 

Great  Structures,  574. 

Greeley,  Horace,  170,  173. 

Green  River,  10. 

Growth  of  the  Commonwealth, 
87,  96. 

Gunnison,  Lieutenant  John  W., 
62,  63,  102,  104. 

Gunnison  Massacre,  102,  107,  118. 


580      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


H 

Half-masting  Episode,  415. 
Half-mast,  Flags  Again  at,  418. 
Hall  of  Relics,  The,  515. 
Hand-cart  Immigration,  The,  113, 
.     114,  115,  116,  117. 
Hanks,   Ephraim,   122. 
Harding,     Governor     Stephen    S., 

187,  191. 
Harrison,   President,   "Policy"  of, 

470. 

Harvest  Home,  Feast  of  the,  50. 
Haslam,  James  H.,  139. 
Hawkins  Case,  The,  277. 
Hayes,  President  R.  B.,  329. 
Hayne,  Julia  Dean,  201. 
Heavier  Penalties  Invoked,  407. 
Heywood,  Joseph  L.,  72. 
High  Prices  in  the  Valley,  92. 
Home  Manufacture,  93,  179. 
Home  Rule  and  Statehood,  495. 
Hooper,  Captain  William  H.,  201, 

238,  246. 

Horticulture,   552. 
Hosannah  Shout,  The,  368. 
Howell,  Joseph,  529. 
Huntington,  Dimick  B.,  9. 


Idaho,  Affairs  in,  391,  454. 

Idaho's  Test  Oath  Sustained,  475. 

Illegal  Grand  Jury,  An,  268. 

Immigration  of  1847,  43;  of  1848, 
50;  of  1849,  64. 

Imprisoned  for  Contempt,  322. 

Inaugural  Ceremonies,  506. 

Independent  and  Self-supporting, 
547. 

Independence  Day  Celebration, 
258,  354. 

Indian  Attacks,  100. 

Indian  Tactics,  31. 

Indian  Treaties,  203. 

Indian  Troubles,  67,  68,  69,  97,  98 
101,  102,  103,  104,  290. 

Indians,  Brigham  Young's  Policy 
with,  97. 

Indictments  and  Arrests,  274. 

Indictment,  Conviction  and  Ap- 
peal, 269. 

Inland  Sea,  The  Shores  of  the,  37. 

Industrial  Home,  The,  441. 

Irrigation,  548. 

Irrigation,  Beginning  of,  40. 

Irrigation  Congress,  551. 

Irrigation  Law,  The  National,  549. 

Iron  County  Created,  83. 


Iron  Manufactured,  94. 
International  Dispute  Over  Ore- 
gon, 15. 


Japanese  Embassy,  290. 

Johnson,  Jacob,  529. 

Johnston's  Army — The  Coming 
of,  118;  News  of  Coming 
Reaches  Utah,  122;  How  News 
was  Received,  124;  Resistance 
to  Army  Determined  Upon, 
125;  Its  March  Begins,  126;  At 
Black's  Fork,  149;  Passes 
through  Salt  Lake  City,  160; 
Founds  Camp  Floyd,  160;  How 
it  Affected  Utah,  161;  Abandons 
Camp  Floyd,  176;  Shame-ful 
Conduct  of  Certain  Troops, 
176;  Farewell  Courtesies  to  Of- 
ficers, 177. 

Johnston,  General  Albert  Sidney 
126,  148,  153,  159. 

Jordan  River,  4,  11. 

Jubilee,  The  Year  of,  326. 

Judge  Versus  Grand  Jury,  166. 


K 


Kane,  Colonel  Thomas  L.,  22,  74, 
151,  153,  170. 

Kearns,  Senator,  and  the  "Hier- 
archy," 527. 

Kilfoyle,  The  Case  of,  271. 

Kimball,  Heber  C,  27,  50,  60. 

Kimball-Richards  Case,  350. 

King,  Wiliam  H.,  526. 

Kinney,  Judge  John  F.,  106,  194, 
201. 


La  Hontan,  11. 

Lands,  Gift  and  Sale  of,  461. 

Land  Jumping,  212,  459. 

Land  Question,  The,  65,  229. 

Las  Vegas  Mission,  The,  112. 

Later  in  the  Sixties,  199. 

Latter-day  Saints,  or  "Mormons," 
18,  19;  Their  Exodus,  19,  27; 
On  the  Threshold  of  the  Wil- 
derness, 19;  Government  Aid 
Solicited  for,  21;  Call  for  the 
"Mormon"  Battalion,  21;  First 
on  Pacific  Coast,  25,  28;  An- 
other Exodus  of,  155;  Their  At- 
titude towards  the  Government, 
183;  Blamed  for  Homicides,  208. 


INDEX. 


581 


Lawyer  Prosecuted,  A,  406. 

Lee,  John  D.,   135,  141,  305,  309, 

310. 

Legislature  of  1892,  495. 
Legislature  of  1897,  510. 
Legislature,  Territorial,  77,  80,  94, 

96,  285. 
Legislature,    The    Governor    and 

the,  351,  435. 

Lewis  and   Clark   Expedition,   19. 
Liberal  Attitude,  The,  494. 
Liberal  Coalition,  The,  260. 
Liberal  Party  Dissolved,  503. 
Liberal  Party,  The,  236,  244,  457. 
Liberals   Defeated  by  Fusionists, 

501. 

Liberal  Victory,  The,  479. 
Life  in  the  Old  Fort,  45. 
Lincoln  and  the  "Mormons,"  180. 
Lincoln's  Assassination,  198. 
Little,  Feramorz,  122. 
Living  Flag,  The,  545. 
Loyal  League,  The,  441. 
Lucin  Cut-off,  The,  566. 
Lund,  President  Anthon  H.,  458. 
Lyman,  President  Francis  M.,  464. 

M 

McCook,  General,  437. 

McCune,  Alfred  W.,  527. 

McKean,  Judge  James  B.,  263, 
272,  284,  294,  299. 

Magraw  Letter,  The,  120. 

Mail  Service,  First  Government, 
87. 

Mail  Service,  Primitive,  57. 

Manifesto,  The,  486;  Acceptance 
by  the  Church,  487;  Expres- 
sions from  the  Presidency  Con- 
cerning, 487;  Question  of  Sin- 
cerity of,  489;  Question  of 
Scope  of,  489;  General  Effect 
.of,  490. 

Manufacturing  Interests,  The,  554. 

Margetts-Cowdy  Massacre,  The, 
112. 

Marked  Ballot,  T^e,  246. 

Marriage  Law,  A  New,  457. 

Martial  Law  Proclaimed,  143. 

Martin's  Ravine,  116. 

Maxwell,  General  George  R.,  229, 
230,  246,  296,  310. 

Mediation,  Peace  and  Pardon, 
151. 

Mercantile  Activities,  92. 

Mercur  and  the  Cyanide  Process, 
565. 

Mexican   Slave  Traders,  98. 


Mexican  War,  The,  19,  20. 

Miles  Case,  The,  321,  324,  331. 

Militia  Officers  Captured,  146. 

Militia,  Organization  of,  57. 

Militia  Service  and  Fatalities,  204. 

Military  Organizations,  519. 

Military  Post,  A  New,  250. 

Military  Riot,  A,  255. 

Military  Versus  Civil  Authority, 
165,  295. 

Mining  Camps,  225,  563. 

Mining  Districts,  Early,  224. 

Mining,  Growth  of,  561. 

Minute  Men  to  the  Front,  68. 

Mining  Movement,  The,   195. 

Mining  Revival,  The,  223. 

Miscellanies,  561. 

Missionaries  and  Emigrants,  15. 

Mississippi  Emigrants,  33. 

"Missouri  Wild  Cats,"  129. 

Missourians  for  Oregon,  33. 

"Mormon"  Attitude,  The,  367. 

Mormon  Battalion — Call  for  the, 
21;  Ready  to  March,  22;  March 
without  a  Parallel,  23;  Services 
— Discharge  and  Re-enlistment, 
24;  Pueblo  Detachment  Arrives 
in  Salt  Lake  Valley,  42;  First 
Arrivals  from  California,  44. 

"Mormon"  Church  Property  Con- 
fiscated, 449,  451. 

"Mormonism"  Survives,  313. 

"Mormon"  Motives,  377. 

"Mormon"  System  Assailed,  The, 
388. 

"Mormon"  View  of  the  "Gentile," 
A,  234. 

"Mormon"  Women's  Protest,  429. 

More  Troops  for  Utah,  151. 

Morrisite  Affair,  The,  185,  193. 

Morrow,  General,  291. 

Morton,  Senator  and  Party,  275. 

Mountain  Meadows  Massacre, 
The,  128,  129,  132,  133,  135,  139, 
304. 

"Move,"  Meaning  of  the,  156. 

Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  418. 

Murray,  Governor  Elia  H.,  325, 
327,  337,  338,  349,  351,  435. 

Musser  Case,  The,  400. 

N 

National     Conventions,    To     the, 

496. 

National  Party  Lines,  491. 
National   Political   Organizations, 

287. 
Nauvoo  Legion,  The,  251,  518. 


582      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Nelson,  William,  310,  355. 
Newman,  Dr.  J.  P.,  251. 
New  Order  of  Things,  A,  474. 
Newspapers  and  Magazines,  231. 
Nicholson,  John,  405,  410. 
Nielson,  Case  of  Hans,  466. 
Nineteenth   Century  Pilgrims,   18. 
Notable  Conference,  A.,  214. 


Obsolete  View,  An,  23. 

Ogden,  Excitement  at,  417. 

Ogden  Goes  Liberal,  471. 

Ogden,  Junction,  The,  231. 

Old  Fort,  The,  42. 

Open     Venire     and     the     Poland 

Law,  379. 

Oquirrh  Mountains,  4. 
Oregon  Short  Line  Railroad,  566. 
Orr  vs.  McAllister,  266. 
Ovation,  A  Great,  323. 
Overland  Route,  The,  15,  181. 


Pacific  Telegraph,  180. 

Pageant  of  Progress,  The,  51,5. 

Parade  of  the  Counties,  The,  515. 

Pardoned  by  the  President,  454. 

Park,  Dr.  John  R.,  231. 

Pawnees  and  Sioux,  31. 

Peace  Commission,  The,  159. 

Penitentiary  Improvements,  464. 

Penitentiary,  The  Old  Utah,  426. 

Penrose.  President  Charles  W., 
409,  479. 

People  and  Workingmen,  481. 

People's  Party  and  Liberals,  334. 

People's  Party  Disbands,  493. 

People's  Party,  The,  236,  244. 

Perpetual  Emigrating  Fund  Com- 
pany, 64,  452. 

Personal  Property  Question,  The, 
485. 

Peterson's  Predicament,  385. 

Petitions  for  Railroad  and  Tele- 
graph, 94. 

Pioneer  Day  1898,  520. 

Pioneer  Day,  Celebration,  328. 

Pioneer  City,  51. 

Pioneer  Day,  Origin  of,  38. 

Pioneer  Mills,  48. 

Pioneer  Monument,  The,  513. 

Pioneers,  Book  of  the,  516. 

Pioneer  Sabbath  Observance,  40. 

Pioneer  Square,  45. 

Pioneer  Square,  52,  524. 

Pioneer  Survivors  at  Utah  Jubi- 
lee, 512. 


Plural  Marriage  an  Establishment 
of  Religion,  184;  Legislation 
against,  184;  Proceedings 
against,  273. 

Plural  Marriage,  Proclamation 
of,  84. 

Poland  Law,  The,  293,  379. 

Police,  Special,  389. 

Political  Indictments,  478. 

Political  Pot-Boiling,  509. 

Polk,  President  James  K.,  21. 

Polygamy  a  Good  War  Cry,  444. 

Polygamists,  Pardon  for,  496. 

Polygamous  Children  Legitima- 
tized, 509. 

Polygamy  Question,  The,  200. 

Polygamy,  Does  the  Bible  Sanc- 
tion, 251. 

Pony  Express,  The,  174. 

Powell,  Major  John  W.,  3. 

Pratt-Newman  Discussion,  250. 

Pratt,  Orson,  27,  35,  38,  40,  51. 

Pratt,  Parley  P.,  43,  ,57,  66,  135. 

Precautions,  Unavailing,  394. 

Prehistoric  Sea  A,  2. 

Preparing  for  Sovereignty,  491. 

Present  Status,  The,  571. 

President  Cleveland's  Policy,  435. 

President  Cleveland's  Promise, 
415. 

President  Harrison  at  Liberty 
Park,  493. 

President  Harrison's  Visit,  491. 

Press  Comments,  157. 

Probate  Courts  and  their  Juris- 
diction, 83. 

Probate  Courts  Curtailed,  267. 

"Promise  to  Obey,"  The,  397. 

Proposed  Regeneration,  195. 

Prosecution,  Purposes  of  the,  397. 

Provo  River,  2,   10. 

Provo  River  Fight,  68. 

Provost  Guard  in  Salt  Lake  City, 
196,  422. 


Radicals  and  Conservatives,  260. 
Raiders,  Tactics  of  the,  419. 
Railroad,  Another  Great,  370. 
Railroads,  566. 
Railroad,    The,    and   What    Came 

with  it,  216. 

"Rascal  and  a  Wretch,"  A,  480. 
Rawlins  Chosen  Senator,  510. 
Rawlins  Elected  Delegate,  496. 
Receivers'      Compensation,     The, 

463. 
Records  Found  Intact,  154. 


INDEX. 


583 


"Reformation,"  The,  137. 

Reform  School,  The,  458. 

Registrars  and  Registration,  476. 

Registration  and  Test  Oath,  359. 

Reign  of  Terror,  A,  366. 

Religious  Parliament,  The,  500. 

Reorganized  Church  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  239. 

Republican  Victory,  A,  504. 

Rescued  by  the  Gulls,  49. 

Resources  and  Development,  547. 

Retirement,  In,  396. 

Return  of  the  Volunteers,  521. 

Reynolds  Case,  The,  300,  317,  320. 

Richards,  Franklin  D.,  102. 

Richards,  Franklin  S.,  439,  442. 

Richards,  Willard,  50. 

"Ring,"  The,  263. 

Rioters  Court-Martialed,  256. 

Rio  Virgen  Valley,  5. 

Roberts,  B.  H.,  430,  ,500,  526,  525. 

Robinson  Murder,  The,  209,  211, 
281. 

Rockwood,  Warden  Albert  P., 
270. 

Rocky  Mountains,  7. 

Roosevelt,  President,  Visits  Utah, 
539. 

Rumors  of  War,  176. 

Rush  Valley  Mining  Claims,  225. 


Saint  George  Temple,  313. 

"Saints  and  Sinners,"  355. 

Salmon  River  Mission,  The,  112. 

Salt  Lake  City,  ,51. 

Salt  Lake  City  Election,  245. 

Salt  Lake  City  Officers  Under  Ar- 
rest, 268. 

Salt  Lake  Herald,  231. 

Salt  Lake  Route,  The,  567. 

Salt  Lake  Temple  Begun,  91. 

Salt  Lake  Temple  Dedicated,  497. 

Salt  Lake  Theatre,  202. 

Salt  Lake  Tribune,  231,  261. 

Salt  Lake  Stake,  53. 

Salt  Lake  Valley,  2,  6;  Descrip- 
tion of,  37;  Explored,  41. 

Salt  Production,  559. 

Sandford,  Judge  Elliot,  462,  465, 
470. 

Sanpete  County,  2. 

Sanpete  Valley  Colonized,  66. 

Scanlan,  Bishop  Lawrence,  233. 

School  Tax  Case,  The,  392. 

Schools,  Free,  480. 

"Scrip  Case,"  The,  229. 


Sedition   and   Polygamy,   Charges 

of,  81. 

"Segregation."  408,  411,  443. 
Sensational  Episodes,  412. 
Sensational  Period,  A,  304. 
Sensational     Prosecutions,    More, 

279. 

Sentenced  to  Die  on  Sunday,  164. 
Sericulture,  555. 
Sevier  County,  2,  205. 
Shaffer,  Governor  J.  Wilson,  247, 

251,  252,  255,  257. 
Sharp,  Bishop  John,  403. 
Shaver,  Judge  Leonidas,  107. 
Sheridan,  General  Phil,  250. 
Sherman,  General  William  T.,  256. 
Shoshone  Indians,  8,  42. 
Silver  Lake  Celebration,  123. 
Smelters  and  Mills,  564. 
Smelters  and  Stamp  Mills,  226. 
Smith,  George  A,  67,  94,  100,  110, 

308. 

Smith,  John  Henry,  504. 
Smith,  Joseph,  18,  19,  27. 
Smith,  Joseph  F.,  51,  524. 
Smith,  Major  Lot,  145. 
Smoot,  Abraham  O.,  122.    . 
Smoot  Investigation,  529,  535. 
Smoot,  Reed,  529. 
Snow,  Eliza  R.,  333. 
Snow,  Erastus,  39. 
Snow,  Lorenzo,  102,  419,  423,  424, 

425,  438,  442,  524. 
Snow,  Zerubbabel,  72,  82. 
Social  Hall  Built,  89. 
Soils  and  Products,  551. 
Southern  Utah  Explored,  66. 
Spencer,     Howard,    Acquittal     of, 

467. 

Spencer,  Orson,  89. 
Spencer-Pike  Homicide,  The,  162. 
Spry,  Governor,  542. 
Spry  Policy,  The,  546. 
Stampede,  Description  of  a,  31. 
Standing  Murder,  The,  371,  372. 
Stansbury,    Captain    Howard,    12, 

62,  63. 

Stansbury  Expedition,  62,  68. 
Stars  and  Stripes  on  Ensign  Peak, 

41. 

State     and     Territorial     Govern- 
ment, 73. 
State  Government,  A  Temporary, 

State  Officers  Chosen,' 505. 
Statehood   Opposed,   71,   110,  285, 
457,  468. 


584      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Statehood,    Petition    for,    55,    182, 

354. 

Steptoe,  Colonel,  106. 
Stiles,  Judge  George  P.,  108,  121. 
Strawberry  Valley   Project,   The, 

550. 

Street  Railways,  568. 
Sugar  Making,  558. 
Summit  County,  2. 
Sutherland,  George,  526,  528. 
"System  on  Trial,"  A,  274. 


Tabernacle  and  Organ,  214. 
Tabernacle    Mass    Meeting,    The, 

414. 

Tabernacle  Reception,  The,  514. 
Tabernacle,  The  Old,  90,  154. 
Taft,  President,  in  Utah,  543. 
Taylor,    President   John,   43,    110, 

314,  318,  320,  367,  395,  449. 
Taylor,  Stephen,  115. 
Telegraph  Line,  The  Deseret,  205. 
Telephone  and  Phonograph,  569. 
Territorial  Attorney-General  and 

Marshal,  83. 
Territorial  Library,  89. 
Territorial  Officers  Ousted,  267. 
Territory  Proposed,  A,  54. 
Territory  Redistricted,  The,  449. 
Textile  Industry,  The,  555. 
Thomas,  Governor  Arthur  L.,  469, 

472,  483. 
Thompson-Dalton   Homicide,  The, 

432,  433. 

Three  Classes  in  Utah,  234. 
Tintic  War,  The,  111. 
Toleration,  A  Sentiment  of,  490. 
Tooele  County,  Election  in,  296. 
Tooele  Valley  Colonized,  66. 
Tragic  Fate,  A,  17. 
Trappers  and  Traders,  13. 
"Tree  of  Liberty,"  The,  326. 
Trespassers  Ousted,  460. 


U 


Uintah  Mountains,  3. 

Under  the   Harrow,  388. 

Union  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific, 

217. 
"Union  Vedette"   Published,   i96, 

198. 
University   of  Utah,   69,   88,   230, 

352,  541. 

"Unlawful  Cohabitation,"  399. 
"Upper  California,"  21. 
Ute  Indians,  8,  42. 


Utah  Affairs  in  Congress,  292. 

Utah  as  Gamaliel,  549. 

Utah  at  the  Front,  520. 

Utah  at  the  World's  Fair,  498. 

Utah  Batteries  The,  517,  521. 

Utah  Boundaries  Re-defined,  179. 

Utah-California  Boundary,  108. 

Utah  Central  Railroad,  221. 

Utah — Character  of  the  Country, 
1;  General  Features  and  Divis- 
ions, 3;  Climate,  Scenery  and 
Resources,  5,  6;  Previous  Con- 
ditions, 6;  "A  Vast  Worthless 
Area,"  6,  7;  Native  Tribes,  8; 
First  Inhabitants,  8;  Spanish 
Explorers,  9;  Mexican  Poses- 
sions,  20;  Territory  of,  71; 
Boundary  Lines,  71;  Towns  in 
1853,  95. 

Utah  Commission,  The,  347,  356, 
364,  448,  472. 

Utah  Contracts  and  Contractors, 
217. 

Utah  County.  Colonized,  66. 

Utah  Cut  Down,  178. 

Utah  Day  at  the  World's  Fair, 
500. 

Utah  Democrats,  491. 

"Utah  Has  Not  Seceded,"  180. 

Utah  Jubilee,  The,  511. 

Utah  Lake,  10. 

Utah  Militia,  The,  142. 

Utah  National  Guard,  518. 

Utah  Penitentiary,  The,  270. 

Utah  Pioneers,  6;  Preparation  for 
Departure,  27;  Equipment  and 
Discipline,  29;  Three  Pioneer 
Women,  29;  Journey  and  Mode 
of  Travel,  30;  Hunting  the  Bi- 
son, 32;  Crossing  the  Platte, 
33;  Over  the  Great  Divide,  34; 
First  Glimpse  of  the  Valley,  35; 
"The  Right  Place,"  36;  Their 
Views  Concerning  the  Salt 
Lake  Valley,  39;  Return  to  the 
Missouri,  43;  Incidents  of  the 
Journey,  43. 

Utah  Republicans,  493. 

Utah's  Admission,  Announcement 
of,  506. 

Utah's  "Irrepressible  Conflict," 
235. 

Utah's  Relief  Offering  to  Chicago 
Fire  Sufferers,  276. 

Utah  Valley,  2. 

Utah  Volunteers,  Goodwin's  Trib- 
ute to,  522. 


INDEX. 


585 


Utah     Volunteers     Killed    in    the 

Philippines,  522. 
Utah,     Why     Kept     Out    of    the 

Union,   183. 


Van  Vliet,  Captain  Stewart,  127. 
Vaughan,    Governor    Vernon    H., 

257. 
Volunteers,  Enlistment  of,  517. 

W 

Walker,  Indian  Chief,  98,  105. 

Walker  War,  98,  99,  105. 

War  and  Politics,  517. 

"War  Governor,  The,"  247. 

Wasatch  Mountains,  1,  3,  4. 

Washakie,  Indian  Chief,  98. 

Washington  County  Created,  83. 

Weber  County,  47. 

Webster,  Daniel,  7. 

Wells,  Emmeline  B.,  231. 

Wells,  General  Daniel  H.,  57,  69, 

142,  143,  205,  230,  253,  322. 
Wells,   Governor  Heber  M.,  ,505, 

507,  539. 

Wells,  Lieutenant  Briant  H.,  517. 
Wells'  vs.  Winters,  477. 
Western  Pacific  Railroad,  568. 
West,   Governor   Caleb  W.,  437. 
West,    Governor, '  for    Statehood, 

501. 

What  of  the  Outcome?  485. 
Wilson,  Chief  Justice  Charles  C., 

249. 
Winder,  Colonel  John  R.,  1^0,  205. 


Woman  Defendants,  402. 
Woman's  Exponent,  The,  231. 
Woman's  Suffrage,  249,  362. 
Women  Imprisoned,  368. 
Women    of   the    Nation,   To    the, 

332. 

Wooden  Gun  Rebellion,  257. 
Woodruff,   Wilford,   38,    102,   516, 

524. 

Woods,  Governor  George  L.,  258. 
Wrong  Righted,  A,  479. 


Young,  Brigham,  Estate  in  Liti- 
gation, 324. 

Young,  Captain  Willard,  519. 

Young,  Joseph  A.,  115,  222. 

Young,  Lieutenant  R.  W.,  437, 
517. 

Young,  Mrs.,  Attacked  by  Indian, 
46. 

Young,  President  Brigham,  21,  22, 
26,  27,  30,  34,  35,  38,  40,  41,  43, 
50,  61,  68,  72,  74,  79,  81,  97,  106, 
124,  125,  127,  140,  167,  171,  192, 
208,  247,  277,  280,  283,  298,  306, 
311,  312. 

Young,  Seymour  B.,  430. 

Y.  X.  Company,  The,  120. 


Zane,  Chief  Justice  C.  S.,  378,  393, 

400,  462,  471,  505. 
Zion's     Co-operative     Mercantile 

Institution,  226. 


Illustrations 


Agricultural  College,  541. 
American  Smelter,  Garfield,  565. 
Armstrong,  Mayor,  461. 
Arthur,  President,  343. 
Augusta  Natural  Bridge,  537. 
Axtell,  Governor,  297. 


B 


Bamberger,  Simon,  568. 
Baskin,  Mayor,  502. 
Bee  Hive  House,  171. 
Bernhisel,  John  M.,  76. 
Bingham,  225. 
Elaine,  Secretary,  485. 
Bonneville,  Captain,  14. 
Bridger,  Colonel,  13  . 
Brine  Shrimp,  The,  14. 
Brown,  Francis  A.,  402. 
Bryan,  William  J.,  512. 
Buchanan,  President,  120. 
Budge,  William,  391. 
Bullock,  Mrs.  Electa,  501. 
Burt,  Chief,  268. 
Burton,  Robert  T.,  144. 


Dallin,  C.  E.,  515. 

Dalton,  Edward  M.,  432. 

Dancing  Ute,  10. 

Dawson,  Governor,  183. 

Bern,  John,  563. 

Deaf,   Dumb  and  Blind   Institute, 

574. 

Doty,  Governor,  194. 
Durkee,  Governor,  203. 
Dyer,  Marshal,  433. 


East  and  West  Shake  Hands,  220. 

Emery,  Governor,  298. 

Emigrant  Train  Passing  Chimney 

Rock,  65. 
Empey,  Nelson  A.,  ,500. 


Federal  Building,  Ogden,  516. 
Federal  Building,  Salt  Lake  City, 

509. 

Fillmore,  President,  72 
Fremont,  Captain,  12. 


Caine,  Captain  J.  E.,  519. 
Caine,  John  T.,  364. 
Calvin,  E.  E.,  567. 
Campbell,  Allen  G.,  336. 
Cannon,  Angus  M.,  394. 
Cannon,  General,  523. 
Cannon,  George  Q.,  335. 
Center  Street,  Provo,  544. 
Chambers,  Robert  C.,  499. 
Clark,  Senator  W.  A.,  551. 
Clawson,  Bishop,  494. 
Clawson,  Rudger,  383. 
Clawson,  Spencer,  511. 
Clayton,  N.  W.,  436. 
Cleveland,  President,  435. 
Colburn,  Judge  E.  F.,  547. 
Connor,  General,  188. 
Cooke,  Colonel,  24. 
Council  House,  The,  56. 
Culmer,  "Harry,"  456. 
Cumming,  Governor,  154. 
Cutler,  Governor,  540. 
Cutler,  Thomas  R.,  560. 


Garfield,  President,  341. 
Godbe,  William  S.,  239. 
Goodwin,  Judge,  355. 
Gowans,  Hugh  S.,  410. 
Grant,  Captain,  F.  A.,  519. 
Grant,  Heber  J.,  559. 
Grant,  President,  303. 
Great  Salt  Lake  City,  1853,  95. 
Greeley,  Horace,  173. 
Groo,  Byron,  386. 
Groves  L.  D.  S.  Hospital,  573. 
Gull  Monument,  49. 

H 

Hand-cart  Train,  A,  114. 
Harding,  Governor,  187. 
Harrison,  President,  492. 
Haslam,  J.  H.,  139. 
Hayes,  President,  329. 
Hayne,  Julia  Dean,  202. 
Holy  Cross  Hospital,  573. 
Home,  Joseph,  556. 


INDEX. 


587 


Hotel  Utah,  570. 

Howell,  Representative,  529. 


Old  Fort,  The,  45. 

Orem,  W.  C.,  568. 

Overland  Stage  Coach,  The,  170. 


Jackling,  D.  C.,  562. 
Jennings,  Mayor,  361. 
Johnston,  General,  126. 

K 

Kane,  Colonel,  151. 
Kearns,  Senator,  528. 
Keith,  David,  564. 
Kiesel,  Mayor,  472. 
Kimball,  Heber  C.,  60. 
King,  William  H.,  ,510. 
Kinney,  Judge,  106. 
Knight,  Jesse,  442. 
Knight  Woolen  Mills,  557. 


Lawrence,  Henry  W.,  245. 
Leonard,  Bishop,  531. 
Lincoln,  President,  180. 
Lion  House,  The,  171. 
Lund,  Anthon^H.,  458. 
Lyman,  Francis  M.,  463. 

Me. 

McClellan.  Professor  John  J.,  552. 
McCornick,  William  S.,  459. 
McKean,  Judge,  264. 
McKinley,  President,  512. 
McMurrin,  Joseph  W.,  421. 

M 

Miner,  Judge,  406. 
Morris,  Elias,  558. 
Murray,  Governor,  325. 
Musser,  A.  Milton,  400. 

N 

Newhouse  Hotel,  571. 
Newhouse,  Samuel,  561. 
New  Penitentiary,  or  State   Pris- 
on, 465. 

Nibley,  Bishop  C.  W.,  559. 
Nicholson,  John,  405. 


Officers'  Quarters,  Fort  Douglas, 

189. 
Old    City    Hall,    Salt    Lake    City, 

490. 


Packard  Free  Library,  536. 
Park  City,  226. 
Park,  Dr.  John  R.,  231. 
Penrose,  Charles  W.,  409. 
Pioneer  Cabin,  A,  46. 
Pioneer  Monument,  The,  514. 
Pioneer  Printing  Press,  88. 
Pony  Express,  The,  175. 
Powers,  Judge,  423. 
Pratt,  Orson,  38. 
Pratt,  P.  P.,  136. 
Pratt,  Warden,  464. 
President's  Office,  171. 
Preston,  Bishop,  452. 
Pueblo  Homes,  9. 


R 


Rawlins,  Delegate,  496. 
Richards,  Franklin  D.,  351. 
Richards,  Franklin  S.,  439. 
Richards,  Mrs.  Emily  S.,  500. 
Richards,  Secretary,  497. 
Rich,  C.  C.,  130. 
Reynolds,  George,  301. 
Roberts,  Bolivar,  460. 
Roberts,  Representative,  525. 
Roosevelt,  President,  539. 


St.  George  Temple,  313. 

St.  Mark's  Hospital,  232. 

St.  Mary's  Cathedral,  572. 

Salisbury,  O.  J.,  495. 

Salt  Lake  City  and  County  Build- 
ing, 327. 

Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  214. 

Salt  Lake  Tabernacle  Interior, 
328., 

Salt  Lake  Temple,  498. 

Salt  Lake  Theatre,  202. 

Salt  Lake  Valley  in  1847,  37. 

Scanlan,  Bishop,  232. 

Sego  Lily,  The,  58. 

Shaffer,  Governor,  248. 

Sharp,  Bishop,  218. 

Sheridan,  General,  250. 

Sherman,  General,  256. 

Silver  Lake,  123. 

Simon,  Fred,  483. 

Smith,  George  A.,  101. 

Smith,  John  Henry,  504. 


588      WHITNEY'S  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  UTAH. 


Smith,  Joseph,  18. 

Smith,  Lot,  145. 

Smith,  President,  524. 

Smoot,  Mayor,  122. 

Smoot,  Senator,  530. 

Snow,  Eliza  R.,  333. 

Snow,  Erastus,  39. 

Snow,  Judge,  82. 

Snow,  Lorenzo,  419. 

Social  Hall,  The,  90. 

Spencer,  D.  S.,  567. 

Spencer,  Orson,  89. 

Spry,  Governor,  542. 

State  House  at  Fillmore,  78. 

State  Industrial  School,  535. 

Stayner,  Arthur,  558. 

Stephens,  Evan,  513. 

Strawberry  Valley  Reservoir,  550. 

Sunset  on  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  6. 

Sutherland,  Judge,  387. 

Sutherland,  Representative,  527. 


Taft,  President,  543. 
Taylor,  President  John,  330. 
Temple  Block,  Salt  Lake  City,  91. 
Territorial    Asylum    for    the    In- 
sane, 354. 

Thatcher,  Moses,  417. 
Thomas,  Governor,  473. 
Thurman,  S.  R.,  467. 
Tuttle,  Bishop,  206. 

U 

Union  Square  University  Build- 
ing, 353. 

University  of  Utah  Administra- 
tion Building,  541. 

Utah  Agricultural  College,  541. 

Utah  Commission,  The,  347. 

Utah  Past  and  Present,  178. 

Utah  "Pen,"  The  Old,  427. 

Utah  Rambouillett  Sheep,  553. 


Utah  State  Capitol,  575. 
"Utah,"  The,  U.  S.  N.,  546. 


Van  Cott,  Waldemar,  532. 
Vaughan,  Governor,  257. 

W 

Walker  Brothers'  Store,  228. 
Walker,  J.  Robinson,  224. 
Wallace,  George  Y.,  569. 
Washakie,  99. 

Wedgewood,  Captain  E.  A.,  521. 
Wells,  Emmeline  B.,  362. 
Wells,  General,  142. 
Wells,  Governor,  506. 
Wells,  Lieutenant,  520. 
West,  Governor,  438. 
Whitney,  Horace  G.,  560. 
Widtsoe,  Dr.  John  A.,  554. 
Winder,  Bishop,  451. 
Women  Pioneers,  The  Three,  29. 
Woodruff,   President,  and    Coun- 
selors, 474. 

Woodruff,  President,  486. 
Woods,  Governor,  258. 


Young,  Brigham,  27,  311. 
Young,  Brigham,  Grave  of,  314. 
Young,  Brigham,  Jr.,  515. 
Young,  Captain  R.  W.,  517. 
Young,  Colonel  Willard,  520. 
Young,  Dr.  Harry  A.,  522. 
Young,  Joseph  A.,  222. 
Young,  Le  Grand,  569. 
Young,  Seymour  B.,  430. 


Zane,  Judge,  378. 

Z.  C.  M.  I.  Main  Building,  227. 


JAN  29  1917 


iiiili  Mill. ml 


UfUiJ 

: 


